Spanish court says jailed Catalan separatists can be sworn in to parliament

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Supreme Court has ruled that five Catalan separatist leaders can leave prison to be sworn-in as lawmakers next Tuesday but said it would not halt the trial over their role in Catalonia's independence bid in 2017.

Oriol Junqueras, Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Jordi Sanchez all won seats in the lower house of parliament in a national election on April 28. Raul Romeva won an upper chamber seat.

They are currently on trial and held in custody on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds relating to the 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia - which was deemed illegal by Spanish courts - and a subsequent unilateral declaration of independence. They deny the charges.

In its ruling issued on Tuesday, the court said it did not agree to their request for the trial to be suspended or for a grant of immunity.

It added that it “does not accept the request for freedom of Junqueras, Rull, Turull, Sanchez and Romeva but authorizes their release from prison on May 21 to attend the constituent meetings of Congress and Senate”.

The Catalan leaders should be properly guarded to ensure their safety during the session, the ruling said, and returned without delay to jail once it is finished.

Parliament's lower house will first convene on May 21 but it was not clear how the jailed separatist leaders status as prisoners would affect the swearing-in ceremony.

In February, they were transferred in police vans under high security from a jail in Catalonia to one in Madrid days before their trial started.

Catalonia was a central issue in the election campaign and regional parties favoring independence could play a part in supporting acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's attempts to form a government.

Last week, a Madrid court ruled that former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in 2017 to escape arrest for his role in the independence referendum, could run in the European Parliament election on May 26.