The European Parliament will throw its support behind Catalonia's jailed former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and two Catalan leaders living in self-imposed exile in Belgium, media said Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th January, 2020) The European Parliament will throw its support behind Catalonia's jailed former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and two Catalan leaders living in self-imposed exile in Belgium, media said Monday.
An internal memo shared in the Strasbourg-based parliament says legislators will "take into account" at a sitting early next week the fact that Junqueras was elected to join them, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Junqueras, who is serving a 13-year jail time in Spain, was voted in as a member of the European parliament alongside former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Health Minister Toni Comin.
The top EU court ruled last month that Junqueras should have been granted immunity to take up his seat in parliament. Spain argued that the sedition convict and two fugitives could not serve as members of the European Parliament without swearing an oath of office in Madrid.
The EU parliament's move does not mean that Junqueras' term will automatically begin in January. He is waiting for the Spanish Supreme Court to let him to go to Strasbourg to collect his lawmaker ID.
