FIVE of Catalonia’s political prisoners who were elected in last month’s Spanish election picked up their credentials as parliament-arians yesterday.

Oriol Junqueras, Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Jordi Sanchez won seats in the Congress, the lower house, while Raul Romeva was elected to the Senate.

The arrived at the parliamentary estate, the Corte, in Madrid, yesterday morning, flanked by plainclothes police officers, and were ushered through a tight cordon set up around the assembly building.

As they entered, they were applauded by MPs from their parties – the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Together for Catalonia (JxCat) – and a pro-independence Basque party.

The five have been in pre-trial prison for more than 18 months and are being tried for their role in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

The Supreme Court had ruled that they could collect their documentation yesterday and attend today’s opening parliamentary session.

Although they were told there would be no interviews with journalists, all five managed to post on social media videos from inside the parliament buildings.

Junqueras said: “Today we were able to leave the prison of Soto del Real thanks to your votes to collect the credentials that have accredited us as a senator and congressional deputy. Your votes have made us free. And on Sunday we will be free in Europe. With humility, firmness, courage and value, we start a historical path! We win the freedom.”

Romeva said: “We are politicians, we do politics, and we will continue to do it. . Thank you all for your appreciation.”

Turull posted: “Proud to be the voice of the citizens of Lleida, the Pyrenees and Aran and to defend the mandate of October 1.”

Sànchez, who is a grassroots activist, tweeted: “I’m in the parliament to pick up the MP record with the will to serve all the people who Oct 1st referendum went to vote, that we expressed in a dignified, peaceful & democratic way the will to be free. Rull cautioned: “Our cause is the cause of freedom. Those who think that it’s only an issue involving the pro-independence movement are wrong because it affects all dissenters in Spain.”

They and seven other pro-indy Catalan leaders are being tried for alleged rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, which they all deny. Proceedings will recommence tomorrow. Once the prisoners return to their cells, they must choose whether to give up their seats to a party colleague or risk being absent from what are likely to be closely contested votes in a fragmented Congress.

It is not yet clear if they will be able to participate in other sessions, after one of their lawyers suggested that the Supreme Court was ready to suspend them as parliamentarians. As with all new MPs, the five were each given a briefcase marked with parliament’s logo, containing an iPhone and a tablet which JxCat MP Laura Borras said they would not be permitted to take back to jail.