Jailed Catalan leader Oriol Junqueras was a member of the European Parliament despite not being able to take up his seat and so enjoyed the immunity that position guaranteed, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) said on Thursday.
The ruling is seen as a boost for the Catalan independence movement and Junqueras, who has been imprisoned in Spain since November 2017 after an illegal independence referendum. He was sentenced in October to 13 years in jail over sedition and misuse of public funds related to the region’s failed independence bid, Reuters reported.
If Spanish authorities wanted to prevent Junqueras traveling to the European Parliament, they would have to request that the Parliament waive his immunity, the court ruled.