Spain is not releasing Dr Oriol Junqueras, although he enjoys immunity as a Member of the European Parliament. Spain is preventing Oriol Junqueras, as a political prisoner, from carrying out his work as an elected MEP, as Vice-President of the Greens/Free European Alliance Group and as President of the European Free Alliance in the European Parliament. This disregard for higher-ranking European law must and will have consequences for Spain!
https://english.vilaweb.cat/noticies/spanish-supreme-court-keeps-mep-veto-on-junqueras/
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/suprem-jec-inhabilitacio-junqueras/
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/marchena-notifica-parlament-europeu-que-mante-junqueras-preso/
Who will bring to justice the Spanish judges of the Spanish Supreme Court who disregard Spanish, European and international law and pass unjust judgments reminiscent of the German Volksgerichtshof?
Spain has ratified the two major United Nations Human Rights covenants, two of the most important sources of Human Rights law, and has incorporated them into its own legal order as binding overriding law (ius cogens). We can read the Human Rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Spain, and in particular the Spanish Supreme Court, violated seriously in the political show trial of the political prisoners from Catalonia:
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx
Article 14 (5) states literally:
«Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law.»
This Human Right was not granted to the Catalan political prisoners. The first instance to which they are legally entitled has been omitted. The political prisoners were sentenced in a single instance by the Supreme Court in Madrid, over which there is no other instance. They therefore only have the possibility of appealing to the Spanish Constitutional Court, which is not a second instance. Spain considers those sentenced at first instance to be guilty and sentenced with final judgment, contrary to the presumption of innocence which should apply until a final sentence is passed at second instance. The same judge, Manuel Marchena, who conducted the disgraceful criminal proceedings against the political prisoners, in some cases unfairly and without objectivity, was now involved, as presiding judge, in the decision not to release Dr Oriol Junqueras from Spanish custody, since he was convicted on 14 October and the last day of the Madrid trial of the Catalan political prisoners ended one day before Oriol Junqueras was elected to the European Parliament. The fact that the elected Member of Parliament, Oriol Junqueras, has thus enjoyed immunity since 2 July 2019 and that the trial against him should not have been continued at all is not a matter of concern to the Spanish judge. In the future, the Spanish Supreme Court will immediately release prisoners on remand who are elected members of the European Parliament; however, Oriol Junqueras, says Marchena, has been convicted by a final court decision and is therefore not allowed to take up his mandate as a Member of the European Parliament.
It is kafkaesque! Oriol Junqueras was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment for exercising his Human Rights and his fundamental rights guaranteed by the Spanish Constitution. What he did was not punishable under either Spanish or international law at the time of the ‘crime’. To obstruct his political work, Spanish judges kept him in «pre-trial detention» for two (!) years — in reality, it was a political protective custody as the Schutzhaft in Nazi-Germany— before sentencing him at first and only instance. Before his conviction he was not allowed to leave the prison under police supervision in order to take the oath required by Spain to the Spanish Constitution. Because Spain itself prevented him from taking the oath that is not required by EU law, he was unlawfully not considered by Spain to be a Member of the European Parliament. Neither the vote of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations nor the clear decision of the European Court of Justice on 19 December 2019 led to a change in the judicial decision. Because, when it comes to Catalans or Basques, Spain and its judiciary will use every means at its disposal to perpetuate the long-standing oppression of these peoples and their leaders and to sow fear and terror. The various measures of repression and discrimination with which Spain is acting against Catalonia should have long since become a crime against humanity. The unlawful refusal of MEP Dr Oriol Junqueras to attend the European Parliament plenary session on 13 January 2020 is just another detail in a long chain of anti-Human Rights measures to oppress Catalonia and its leaders. The European Union cannot and must no longer tolerate this! It must impose severe sanctions on Spain if and as long as Spain does so and tramples on Human Rights! A country which does not respect the immunity of an elected Member of the European Parliament is placing itself outside the community of European Union countries. Presumably, the MEPs Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín (and from February 2020 on, the MEP who will succeed after the Brexit, Prof. Dr. Clara Ponsatí) would also have to fear their immediate arrest in Spain, as Spanish courts apparently do not care much about EU law and thus also about the immunity of MEPs.