MADRID: Not content with sitting through a sensitive trial as the main defendant, Catalonia’s former separatist vice-president Oriol Junqueras also got himself elected to the national and European parliaments.
Broadcast live on television since it started on February 12, the trial in Madrid over a failed bid to prise Catalonia from Spain in October 2017 is scheduled to end on Wednesday with a sentence expected in the autumn.
One of 12 separatists in the dock, Junqueras faces up to 25 years in prison for rebellion and misuse of public funds, the heaviest sentence.
Behind bars since November 2017 after choosing to remain in Spain rather than escape following Catalonia’s failed declaration of independence, the trial propelled the lifelong supporter of secession back into the spotlight.
“If at any time I put a bit of passion into my explanations, please understand,” the 50-year-old told Spain’s Supreme Court in February.
“It’s because they’ve not been letting me speak for a year and a half and I need to express myself, given how much I like talking,” he said before launching into a passionate defense for 90 minutes.
Another way of expressing himself was standing in a general election on April 28 and being voted to Spain’s lower house along with three other defendants who are also in jail. They were all subsequently suspended from parliament.
But that wasn’t the end. On May 26, Junqueras was elected to the European Parliament and hopes to keep that post, though how that will happen remains to be seen.
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