The unity of Spain's Constitutional Court has broken. The twelve judges have this Thursday dismissed Oriol Junqueras's appeal against his pretrial detention, saying it violated his right to political participation as a deputy in the Catalan Parliament. Nine of the judges voted in favour, with one, Santiago Martínez-Vares, issuing a concurring opinion detailing minor differences. After two days of meetings, however, they failed to reach a consensus, and Fernando Valdés, Juan Antonio Xiol and María Luisa Balaguer, gave dissenting conclusions.
The full ruling will be released in the coming days, written by the court's president, Juan José González Rivas, as well as the other opinions. We already know, however, that most of the court sees no rights violation. They don't accept the complaints of the violation of the rights to ideological freedom and expression, of the right to a trial, of the right to the presumption of innocence and the right to family life. They also reject the complaint of violations of his rights to personal freedom and to political participation and representation, his right of access to public office and to defence.
With its verdict, the court has confirmed the decision of examining judge Pablo Llarena, who in January 2018 upheld the pretrial detention ordered the previous year by then National Audience judge Carmen Lamela. Junqueras's defence argued that, after being re-elected to the Catalan Parliament on 21st December 2017, that violated his right to political participation. The judges argue that "the questioned legal decisions comply with the constitutional requirements of legal provision, legitimate objective and proportionality."
Notably, the decision marks the end of the unity the Constitutional Court had so far maintained in matters relating to the Catalan independence movement. It's not yet known what led a quarter of the judges to disagree with the conclusion. The court is yet to resolve on another appeal from Junqueras after he was prevented from taking part in the opening of parliament.
The decision also opens a new path up to Junqueras: Europe. Having exhausted all his options within Spain, he can now take his legal fight to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.