The UN's Human Rights Committee found on Wednesday that Spain violated the political rights of former members of the Catalan government and parliament.

The committee of independent rights experts reviewed a complaint from four senior politicians from Catalonia, the northeastern autonomous region of Spain, who were convicted of sedition for involvement in a 2017 independence referendum.

The ruling is largely symbolic and entails no penalty for Spain's government or courts.

What were the committee's findings?

The committee found that former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras and three former ministers had "urged the public to remain strictly peaceful."

Based on this, the UN body concluded that the decision to charge the ex-cabinet members with sedition was "was not foreseeable and therefore not based on reasonable and objective grounds provided for by law."

"The decision to suspend elected officials should rely on clear and foreseeable laws which establish reasonable and objective grounds for the restriction of the political rights, and must be applied based on an individualized assessment," committee member Helene Tigroudja said.

Following the issuing of the finding, Junqueras tweeted "this shows that Spain can't continue its repressive practices against the independence movement."

"The only way out is amnesty for all the repressed, no excuses," the pro-independence political figure demanded.

Catalonia's independence movement

Catalonia has for years been the scene of a political crisis between pro-independence parties, which control the executive and regional parliament, and Spain's central government in Madrid.

In 2017, the pro-independence movement organized a referendum on secession. The Catalan Parliament then issued a short-lived declaration of independence.

Junqueras and three ministers were prosecuted for the crime of rebellion, which entails a call for violent uprising, and were suspended from their positions.

In 2019, the four were convicted of sedition and their suspension was lifted. The crime of sedition does not include an element of violence.

In 2021, the former Catalan cabinet members were pardoned by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Sanchez's minority government has relied on votes from pro-independence parties, including Junqueras' Republican Left (ERC), to pass legislation.

Earlier this year, a number of Catalan lawmakers alleged that Spain's intelligence services had used Pegasus software to hack their phones.

sdi/nm (AFP, Reuters)