MADRID (AP) — Spain's Supreme Court has turned down a request from a jailed Catalan separatist leader to attend the northeastern region's parliament, where lawmakers are due to vote on whether to make him president of Catalonia.
Judge Pablo LLarena wrote in a ruling Friday that there was a risk that Jordi Sanchez would repeat the offenses which have landed him in jail.
Sanchez, a prominent secessionist who was elected to parliament last December, has been held in a prison near Madrid since October. He is being detained while Llarena investigates whether he orchestrated protests that hindered officials trying to stop a court-banned Catalan independence referendum that month.
Catalonia's parliament wants to vote on Sanchez as leader Monday.
The Spanish government argues that anyone facing charges can't be elected by the Catalan parliament.
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