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A chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court has rejected the appeal for release on bail presented by defence council for the nine pro-independence politicians and activists in pretrial detention for their roles in last year's independence push: Josep Rull, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez, Carme Forcadell, Joaquim Forn, Dolors Bassa and Jordi Cuixart. The main argument of this appeal was the personal and family impact of their imprisonments on each of them.

The court argues that the dignity with which defence counsel explains their family circumstances isn't sufficient to outweigh the flight risk and the risk of reoffending they perceive the defendants to pose. These are the same considerations that have led successive judges to order and then ratify their pretrial detention.

"The aims of the trial and, especially, the cautionary measures which are enacted to ensure these aims, don't blur due to the suffering that the deprivation of liberty can mean for the family order," the court writes.

The order says that any cautionary measures are subject by law "to the principles of legality, judiciality, exceptionality, proportionality, need and transitoriness, paying attention to the serious personal and family harm that the deprivation of liberty means in every order, as well as its collateral consequences with respect to other people who could be linked with the defendant".

According to the judges, the feelings of affliction of relatives "cannot serve as reasons leading to freedom".

Right to defence

Some of the prisoners also argued a violation of their right to defence and a fair trial if they remain in custody during their trials. The court says that "neither the material content of the right to defence, nor, needless to say, the right to a trial with all guarantees are affected by the conditions which, if it proves to be the case, will preside over the holding of the hearings".

The judges add that "the dignity of the accused, the conditions of their diet and the habitability of the site of their custody, have to be duly guaranteed" by the court.

The court also rejects the allegations referring to the violation of their rights to freedom, the presumption of innocence and a public trial without undue delays made by Turull and Rull in their respective appeals.

Nor do they accept Bassa's claim relating to the fact that she has abandoned politics and the current political climate inclined to dialogue between the Spanish and Catalan governments.