FIVE of Catalonia’s political prisoners who won parliamentary seats in last month’s election, will today travel to Spain’s equivalent of Westminster – the Cortes – a day ahead of them being sworn in.

Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Jordi Sanchez, Josep Rull and Jordi Turull will be taken to the Spanish parliament to collect their certificates of election to enable them to become MPs – or in the case of Romeva,

a senator.

Although they will not be handcuffed while in the parliamentary estate, they will be heavily guarded and not allowed to speak with journalists.

However, Andreu Van den Eynde, a leading member of their defence team, has warned that Spain’s Supreme Court is likely to suspend them from their new roles “imminently”.

Van den Eynde, who represents Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) leader Junqueras and his party colleague Romeva, told radio station RAC1 their suspension seemed inevitable because it was the only explanation such heavy restrictions on their movement.

The five are among 12 politicians and activists on trial for their part in the October 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

Van den Eynde, who represents Junqueras and Romeva, said: “All the formalities will be allowed, but then the [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 went on to criticise Manuel Marchena, the judge overseeing the trial, who has refused to allow videos of police violence during the referendum to be used in the cross-examination of state witnesses.

“It will be like going to the movies, if someone talks they will tell us to be quiet.” he said.

Meanwhile, Agora Judicial, the Barcelona judges’ association, has criticised “the deplorable precedent” in Marchena’s decision concerning witnesses giving evidence in Catalan.

It specifically referred to his threat of potential “legal consequences” for a witness if he did not change from Catalan to Spanish in his evidence. After the threat, the witness switched languages to continue his declaration.

Agora Judicial said no criminal measures could be taken against him since the regulation stated that “every person who takes part in judicial proceedings carried out in Catalonia has the right to use the official language that he or she chooses in his or her oral or written statements”.

It went on to quote the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which said that anyone who had to declare before a court must be able to express themselves “in their regional or minority language without incurring additional expenses”.

Spanish is the official language in Spain, while Catalan, Basque and Galician have co-official status in the major areas where they are spoken.