Defence lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde has explained this Saturday that Spain's Supreme Court is likely to suspend the Catalan prisoners "imminently" from the roles they have been elected into as Spanish parliamentary deputies and senators. Just two days before the five pro-independence politicians who won office on April 28th are due to carry out swearing-in formalities for their elected positions, Van den Eynde told radio station RAC1 that this suspension seems inevitable because, "it's the only explanation for why the Court has restricted their actions so much."
Van den Eynde, who represents pro-independence prisoners Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva in the huge Supreme Court trial, predicted that "all the formalities will be allowed, but then the [elected prisoners] will not be allowed to exercise any of the prerogatives of their offices" nor will they be permitted "to do the same work as their colleagues." "The formalities will be complied with, and nothing else," he concluded. The Catalan prisoners are scheduled to collect their certificates of election on Monday ahead of the opening of parliament on Tuesday.
As for the judicial viewing of the many videos of the 1st October referendum which will get underway at the Supreme Court in the next few days, the lawyer has already asserted that judge Manuel Marchena will not allow any contextualization of the images to be given, to avoid contradictions with what witnesses have already stated. "It will be like going to the movies, if someone talks they will tell us to be quiet," he said ironically, calling it "a technical barbarity" but "congruent with the thesis of avoiding confronting differing pieces of evidence."
The lawyer also referred to the controversial phrase used by Marchena when lawyer Benet Salellas informed that he had finished his questioning: "Much better," said the judge. "It's a very unfortunate expression," Van den Eynde told RAC1, adding that it shows "the existence of a motive for a lack of impartiality, which generates an option for appeal to Spain's Constitutional Court and the European Court in Strasbourg."
Van den Eynde also denounced the "frustration" felt by the defence teams in the Supreme Court case. "We can say what we like, but we don't win the battles, because Marchena even turns off the micro", he said, complaining that they end up "frustrated because we are unable to explain ourselves from a technical point of view."