Jailed Catalan leaders in Supreme Court to fight against independence charges

Along with eight members of Catalonia's Cabinet Jordi Cuixart, head of Omnium Cultural and Jordi Sanchez, the president of the Catalan National Assembly, are also due to appear.

Sacked regional vice-president Oriol Junqueras, one of his ERC party's main candidates for the election, has asked to be allowed to leave jail in order to campaign in the vote which was called by Madrid.

Mr Junqueras and seven other former members of the Catalan regional cabinet were jailed on November 2 pending trial on charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of funds after the Catalan government declared independence from Spain.

The referendum vote was declared illegal by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s administration and the security forces - the national police and Guardia Civil took violent action in an attempt to stop people trying to vote, often using plastic bullets and batons in their attempts to close down polling stations.

The Catalan government, led by Carles Puigdemont, then declared independence with Mr Rajoy reacting by invoking Article 155 of the Spanish constitution and imposing direct rule over the wealthy north-east region.

The eight jailed cabinet members, whose original hearing was at the Spanish High Court, had their case moved to the Supreme Court after the presiding judge argued the different Catalan cases should be tried in the same court.

Earlier in November, the Supreme Court released Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell on bail of £132,500 (€150,000) after she agreed to renounce any political activity that went against the Spanish constitution.

All the eight former cabinet members have said they would abide by a ruling giving Madrid control over the region, according to their lawyers, although some of them said they did not agree with this unprecedented move stripping power from the rebel administration.

Campaigning for the December 21 election, seen by pro-independence parties as a de facto plebiscite on secession from Spain, starts on Monday at midnight.

Carles Puigdemont, in self-imposed exile in Belgium and subject to an arrest warrant from Spain for rebellion and misuse of public funds, has called the elections the most important in the region's history.

Barely a quarter of Catalans want to continue with the project of creating an independent state, a recent survey by pollsters Metroscopia showed.

However, polls show the vote split evenly between parties seeking independence from Spain and those wanting to remain part of a united country.

Arrested members of the Catalan government have now spent one month behind bars with Mr Puigdemont saying that Catalonia was not in a worse situation than before and noting that “a frightened society is not a free society”.