Court blocks Catalan chief release bid

Spain’s Supreme Court has turned down a second request by a jailed leader of Catalonia’s independence movement to be released so that regional lawmakers can vote on making him their leader.

Judge Pablo Llarena said in a ruling there remained a risk that Jordi Sanchez, a prominent secessionist, would repeat the offences that landed him in a Madrid jail.

He is being detained while the Supreme Court investigates whether he orchestrated protests that hindered officials who were trying to stop a court-banned Catalan independence referendum in October last year.