Jailed Catalan leader 'should have had immunity', rules EU court

An imprisoned Catalan nonconformist pioneer who has been not able to take up his European Parliament seat ought to have been given resistance, the EU's top court says.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decided that Oriol Junqueras turned into an MEP the minute he was chosen in May, regardless of being on preliminary for dissidence.

Junqueras was later sentenced and imprisoned for his job in an unlawful 2017 Catalan autonomy choice.

His Republican Left of Catalonia party is requesting his prompt discharge.

Spanish law requires new MEPs to make a solemn vow on the constitution in Spain. Junqueras, who has been in authority since November 2017, was not permitted to do this while in jail.

On Thursday, the ECJ decided that Junqueras ought to have "delighted in the vulnerabilities ensured" by EU law after the political race results were affirmed.

It included that if Spanish courts had needed to keep up his temporary detainment to keep him from making a trip to sit down in the European Parliament, they ought to have mentioned that Parliament forgoes his invulnerability.