MADRID: As Catalonia’s separatist crisis drags on, Spain’s judiciary has found itself on the back foot, accused of engaging in the type of partisanship normally associated with repressive dictatorships, reports AFP.

The region’s sacked leader Carles Puigdemont says he is in Belgium because he would not get fair treatment back home, a claim only amplified when eight of his deputies were jailed last week pending investigation into charges of sedition and rebellion.

But while legal experts have criticised some aspects of the judicial response to Catalonia’s independence drive, they reject claims that the system lacks independence.

Manuel Ruiz de Lara, spokesman for the advocacy group Civic Platform for Judiciary Independence, defends the independence of judges’ decisions which he notes are often criticised or approved by politicians “according to their interests”.

He says that if politicians like a decision they proclaim it the work of an independent judge, and vice-versa if they are opposed to it.

The Catalan crisis, which kicked off when separatist leaders held an independence referendum last month despite a court ban, has stoked passions in Spain.

Portrayed as a repressive state by supporters of secession, Spain was also accused of taking “political prisoners” when a Madrid judge sent the leaders of two Catalan pro-independence associations to prison pending investigation into sedition.

Last week, the same judge jailed eight Catalan regional ministers who had been sacked by Madrid.

By then, Puigdemont and four of his deputies had fled to Belgium. In her ruling remanding the eight in custody, Judge Carmen Lamela decided among other things that it was too risky to set them free during the investigation as they could escape, given Puigdemont and others had already done so. Her decision caused outrage.

“Spanish justice has been placed at the service of the government’s political agenda,” wrote Puigdemont, who awaits possible extradition, in the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

Still, while some question whether Lamela made the right decision, judges and legal experts believe she made it free of political influence.

“Judges are independent. That they may at times not be reasonable or sensible is another thing,” says Xavier Arbos, a law professor at the University of Barcelona.

Rebellion charge in doubt -

However, the charge of rebellion brought against separatist leaders, which in this case could be punishable by up to 25 years in jail, has drawn controversy.

Defined as “rising up in a violent and public manner,” it is “disproportionate” according to Jose Maria Mena, a former chief prosecutor in Catalonia, given the peaceful nature of the independence drive.