CATALONIA’s jailed vice-president – incarcerated by the Spanish Government – will appear before the country’s Supreme Court today to seek his release on bail.

Oriol Junqueras, number two to exiled president Carles Puigdemont, was sent to Estremera prison two months ago along with several of his colleagues. Six of them have since been released on bail of €100,000 (£88,900).

His lawyer, Andreu Van den Eynde, has said that should Judge Pablo Llarena decide to keep his client in prison, he would seek his transfer to a penitentiary to allow him to attend plenary sessions of the Catalan Parliament, to which he was re-elected on December 21.

READ MORE: Spain slammed for lack of progress in tackling corruption

Van den Eynde said Junqueras must be able to exercise his political rights as an elected member of the parliament, and told Catalunya Radio: “This is an argument of enormous importance when it comes to reviewing the precautionary measure – there are thousands of less serious alternatives than preventative prison.”

Puigdemont, who was also re-elected in the December election, is in self-imposed exile in Brussels, and is facing charges in Spain of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. He could face arrest should he return to Catalonia.

However, Van den Eynde suggested that Junqueras be allowed his freedom should he have to replace Puigdemont to take office as president of the Generalitat: “If Junqueras should be president, they must be released.”

The lawyer said the fact that Junqueras was “the political representative of thousands of citizens” was a strong argument and that the court should consider several alternatives to prison.

“We have to remember that the instruction has not started yet and that Mr Junqueras has not been tried,” he said. Meanwhile, the spokesperson for Junqueras’s Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party has said it is “not very probable” that he will be freed today.

Sergi Sabrià told radio station Rac1 that he had faith in the party’s legal team, but thought decisions about the prisoners were “political and not judicial”, which made it difficult to predict what will happen today.

Sabrià insisted that he was still hopeful that Junqueras’s release would also benefit the remaining prisoners Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, who are also due to appear before the same judge on January 11.

Pro-independence parties kept their majority in the Parliament following the December poll, which had been ordered by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The pro-union Ciutadans became the largest party in the chamber with 37 seats, but the three pro-independence groups won a total of 70 seats out of 135, enough to form a new government.

The Parliament had declared independence on October 27 after a referendum that the Madrid government deemed illegal. Rajoy then imposed direct rule on the autonomous state by triggering Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, before calling the December Catalan election.

Indy-seeking parties claim their cause has renewed legitimacy following the poll, but Rajoy has been keeping his head down, and his next moves are far from clear.

In his Rac1 interview, Sabrià asked how Puigdemont’s party, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), would return him from Brussels, and said there was “no alternative” to that.

He said it would be “nice for everyone” if the new parliament lasted for at least three years.

But he dismissed the possibility of the December poll being re-run: “After the victory of the December 21 elections, the one thing we can’t do is not find an agreement.”