Carles Puigdemont is to request judicial permission to attend his inauguration as Catalan president after Spain's top court barred him from being sworn in from Belgium in an intensifying showdown over his bid to return to power, The Telegraph writes.

The government in Madrid had filed a controversial appeal against Mr Puigdemont’s nomination as president in the hope of blocking the inauguration session scheduled for Tuesday. 

After a lengthy debate stretching late into Saturday night, the Constitutional Court refused to hear the appeal but delivered a compromise ruling: Mr Puigdemont must attend the Catalan parliament to be sworn in in person. The decision poses a complicated dilemma for Mr Puigdemont, who faces arrest on charges of sedition and rebellion if he returns to Spain from his self-imposed exile in Belgium.