Court’s competence questioned as language rights also violated

As well as questioning the impartiality of judge Manuel Marchena, the defence teams for political prisoners Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuellart, Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull, yesterday demanded a hearing to discuss the high court’s competence to judge them.

Lawyers Jordi Pina, Andreu van den Eynde, Marina Roig and Àlex Solà share the belief that all of the defendants except for Cuixart should be tried in the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), while the latter should be tried in an ordinary court in Barcelona, where the events occurred.

Cuixart’s lawyers claim that his language rights will also be violated, as he has requested the processing of judicial proceedings in Catalan, as is his right and occurs in other multilingual countries such as Belgium and Switzerland. Holding the trial in Catalonia would, they argue, allow the use of both Catalan and Spanish without the need for intermediaries.

The Supreme Court’s justification for the case against the Catalan pro-independence supporters is that some actions took place outside Spain, such as the vote by citizens living abroad (4,330 votes). However, none of the accusations refer to violent acts or uprisings abroad, only the recruitment of observers or the purchase of ballot boxes.