A DAY before the deadline for Catalonia’s president to definitively answer if his state will declare independence, Spain’s top court has rubber-stamped a ruling that the October 1 independence referendum was illegal.

The ruling from the constitutional court found the “self-determination referendum law” passed by the Catalan parliament to allow the poll to go ahead was against Spain’s national sovereignty and the “indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation”.

“We are facing an executive power in the state that uses the judiciary branch to block the legislative,” Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told reporters shortly after the ruling was announced.

The decision itself was not surprising as the Spanish government had insisted in the run-up to the referendum that it was illegal.

With backing for independence from more than 90 per cent of those who were able to vote, despite brutal action from Spanish police, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said last week that while they had a mandate to declare independence, they would not immediately put it into effect to allow time for talks and mediation.

However, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused to talk and set Puigdemont a deadline of tomorrow to explicitly state if he was declaring independence. If he refuses, the Madrid government has said it would move to restrict or revoke Catalonia’s existing areas of self-governance.

Yesterday’s ruling did nothing to defuse the tensions of the past fortnight, or the jailing on Monday of two leaders of Catalonia’s pro-indy movement, as part of an inquiry into allegations of sedition.

Thousands of protesters carrying posters reading “Freedom for the Political Prisoners” gathered in Barcelona demanding the release of Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart, respective leaders of grassroots organisations the Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural.

A judge jailed them after ruling that they organised the massive demonstrations on September 20 and 21 that allegedly hindered police moves against preparations for the poll.

Hundreds of MEPs gathered outside the European Parliament in Brussels in solidarity, holding pictures of the pair, headlined: “Freedom for Catalan political prisoners”.

Protests were also held in Barcelona, when students left their classrooms and many workers went on a symbolic 15-minute strike.

Aina Delgado Morell, from Universitats per la Republica, a pro- independence student organisation, said: “We urge the release of our political prisoners and call on Catalan authorities to revoke the suspension of the independence declaration and proclaim the Catalan republic.”

She added that students would keep protests going to “stop the repression by the Spanish state”.

Mike Thom, a Scot and long-time resident of Barcelona, told The National that the EU’s inaction had left Catalans feeling isolated.

“Catalans really need to feel that there is support over the Pyrenees, as successive miserable European governments and EU authority abandons them,” he said.

“Sedition is a crime that went out of fashion in the 18th-century Enlightenment (in which Scotland excelled) and we are now watching Spain regress to the 15th century.”

Lawyers from the Barcelona Bar Association’s Commission for the Defence of Human Rights, meanwhile, have criticised magistrate Carmen Lamela for “inventing the crime” used to charge Sànchez and Cuixart with sedition.

They said inciting peaceful uprising was “a different kind of legal”, that did not warrant a prison sentence because it doesn’t fit in with the law.

Sedition should also not be tried at the Spanish National Court, they said, but in Barcelona, as it is a public order offence.

Elsewhere, a powerful plea has gone out for Europe to intervene in the deadlock. A social media video, fronted by a young Catalan woman and narrated in English, stresses the Catalans’ position as peaceful European citizens who believe in freedom, democracy and human rights, which are now under attack in Catalonia.

Against a backdrop of footage showing police beating people trying to vote, she says: “The Spanish government deployed thousands of police to stop the independence referendum. They assaulted polling stations. They beat senior citizens and young people. And they seized ballot boxes.

“What crime had these people committed? Going out to vote. Only asking for their voices to be heard, just like the Scottish did not so long ago.”

And, in a plea for support, she adds: “What’s happening here in Catalonia is not a Spanish internal affair. It concerns each and every European citizen.

“Share this video with your friends, family and representatives. Now, before it’s too late. Help Catalonia, save Europe.”