A Spanish Fairy-tale

Enric Milo, Spain's equivalent of our brave Secretary of State for Scotland "Fluffy" Mundell, described "Fairy traps" to the Supreme Court, yesterday. Just like Fluffy Mundell, Sr. Millo appears to live in a parallel universe.

Sr. Millo was giving evidence to the Court, evidence designed to support his fairy-tale fantasy of "violent revolution" in Catalonia, around the 1st October 2017 independence referendum. This is the charge that could lead to 25 year prison sentence for Catalan politicians held on remand.
 
In Sr. Millo's version of the story, these politicians headed a hierarchy of criminal groups who organised violent confrontations with Spanish police. (Compare this with the many descriptions of those who were actually there, at the polling places on 1st Oct 2017, defending voters against baton charges by militarised police armed with baton rounds).
 
Under oath, Sr. Millo cited "more than 100, 150" cases of violence, including "Fairy traps" – liquid detergent spread around the entrance of a polling place. Highly trained, armed militarised police officers slipped in the Fairy liquid, causing injuries to themselves, claims Millo.

According to Sr. Millo, spreading detergent is an act of “violent revolution”!

No-one here in Catalonia is in any doubt about the outcome of the trial. The 12 political prisoners are going to be convicted; the cards are already stacked that way. They will then have to take their case to the European Court of Justice.

The fairy-tale in the Madrid Court is important to Scotland.

The court will take decisions on topics that affect how far we can go without independence;

1.    Can the parliament of a devolved region (Catalonia, or Scotland) debate independence?

Carme Forcadell, Presiding officer of the Catalan Parliament, the Generalitat, faces up to 17 years of jail for allowing that debate.

2. When does civic protest or disobedience become "violent revolution"?

Many states have something in their constitution about violent revolution. It's understandable (from the point of view of the state) that you make it illegal to attempt to overthrow the state with violence, specifically, a military coup. But is a Fairy liquid protest "violent revolution"? Is a line of protesters, unarmed, and with their hands in the air "violent revolution"?


I hope that Scotland will never have to test the limits of the English state in matters of “violent revolution” I fear that England's repression of the Scots will make Spain's reaction look like a fairy-tale.


But beware. You may be certain that there are politicians in Westminster who are enjoying the Catalan-bashing in Madrid, and beginning to wonder whether they could do the same to Scotland.

Show Trials

During the Franco dictatorship in Spain, thousands of people were condemned to death. In the period 1939-44, almost 3,000 people were executed after military show trials. All sorts of people - local mayors, activists and, infamously, Las Trece Rosas ("Thirteen Roses"), a group of young women who were executed on 5th August 1939.

The show trials continued throughout the Franco period, until in December 1970, the dictatorship organised a show trial against the 'Burgos 16', a group accused of supporting ETA and, specifically, of murdering a police commissioner, Meliton Manzanas.

As Michael von Tangen showed in "Prisons, Peace and Terrorism",

...the intention of the trial had been to prove to the Spanish people and the international community that the insurgents were dangerous terrorists with no popular support. Instead, the trial became an international show-case in which the prisoners and their defence lawyers were able to denounce their treatment and the treatment that the Basque and Spanish populations suffered under Franco. This portrayal was disastrous for the regime, as Franco wanted to portray his state as ...increasingly liberal..and a suitable candidate to join the European Economic Community.

Show Trials, Opening Soon

But it seems that the Spanish state has forgotten this lesson from history. Because it is increasingly apparent that the trials of the Catalan political prisoners will be exactly the same; show trials designed to show that the "insurgents were dangerous terrorists with no popular support."

Today we have news that leading Spanish judges have been using an internet discussion group to call pro-independence leaders 'Nazis', 'bacteria' and 'virus' and to accuse them of sedition. Judges, in other words, showing how biassed they are going to be in the forthcoming trials of the political prisoners.

President of the Generalitat Quim Torra has demanded the resignation of the chair of the General Council of the Judiciary, the body that governs the courts and judges in Spain.

President Torra is reported as having said that:

the limited confidence that remains in Spanish justice has definitely been shattered today.

The political prisoners face trials, starting in November, on charges of violent revolution and sedition. If found guilty they will face sentences of up to 30 years. 

For some of the prisoners, 30 years means that they could die in prison. Under the Franco regime they would have been shot, like the Thirteen Roses, after a similar show trial. 

It's hard to spot the difference.




Source: Prisons, Peace and Terrorism: Penal Policy in the Reduction of Political Violence in Northern Ireland, Italy and the Spanish Basque Country, 1968-97, Michael von Tangen, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1998

Why are the Two Jordis in Prison?

The 'two Jordis' - Jordi Cuixart, president of Òmnium Cultural and Jordi Sànchez, president of the ANC - have been locked up for more than nine months. They have not yet faced trial, and are unlikely to get a trial until early in 2019. 

But why are they in prison? They are accused of violent rebellion, and sedition, along with other crimes. But a recent documentary, from Mediapro in Barcelona, exposes the falsehoods, and hints at a conspiracy by the Spanish Government, all designed to entrap the Jordis.

The critical date is 20th September 2017. Like thousands of others, I was heading to work when I saw on social media that the Spanish militarised police, the Guardia Civil, had entered the Catalan Government's Economy Ministry. Like thousands of others I was horrified that the Spanish government would send its armed police into a Catalan government ministry. And like thousands of others, I headed straight there. The demonstration was, like all of the indy demos here, peaceful, funny, full of music, songs, cheering. The staff in the ministry kept us hydrated by sharing out water bottles from a first floor balcony. The demo grew during the day - I saw old people, young people, office staff in suits and ties and folk who had come from building sites.

But, as the documentary makes clear, the police were drawing us all into a trap. They did so by leaving unguarded guns in their police cars, by claiming that people were forcing their way into the ministry (they were not), by delaying their departure in a futile attempt at angering the crowd, and by threatening to invade the offices of the CUP, one of the pro-independence political parties. They entrapped the Jordis, and then twisted the story and the images to make it appear as though the Jordis were involved in a 'violent' uprising.

Eventually, when these cases get to the European Court of Justice, the nine political prisoners will be released. But by then five, six or more years will have passed (the European Court moves very slowly).

So please, act now. Write to your MP, your MSP, your MEP and to the Spanish Ambassador to demand freedom for the nine political prisoners held by Spain, and liberty for those forced to live in exile.

Catch-22 for the Prisoners

The Catalan political prisoners in Spain are trapped in a mixture of Groundhog Day and Catch-22.

They are held in prisons 400 miles from their homes in Barcelona. Each visit means an 800-mile round trip for spouses, children or grandchildren, for 40 minutes of visit separated by armour plated glass.

Yesterday,  three of the prisoners, Carme Forcadell, Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva, asked again (for the nth time) to be moved to a prison nearer their families. The Supreme Court judge, Pablo Llarena, again (for the nth time) refused their request. 

In the judgement handed down yesterday, Llarena said that he does not have the power to decide on where the prisoners should be held. It is, he claims, the responsibility of the Prison Department.


The Prison Department is part of the Ministry of the Interior (the Spanish 'Home Office'). But the newly-appointed Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, told Onda Cero radio yesterday that it was up to the judge to decide whether the prisoners could be moved.

The judge says it's up to the Ministry, and the Ministry says it's up to the judge.

Who's right?

They are both wrong, because the political prisoners should be at home with their families and free of all charges. But while we wait for the European courts to arrive at that conclusion, the families of Spain's political prisoners, many with young children, are forced to spend hours on the road, for a snatched visit with their loved ones. It's a cruel Catch-22.

What can you do?

Write to the prisoners, and write to the Spanish Embassy to protest. Here's how.

Early Day Motion, Westminster

According to The National,  Douglas Chapman, SNP MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, has lodged an Early Day Motion (EDM) that asks the new Spanish Government to release the political prisoners.The motion makes specific reference to Clara Ponsatí.

Douglas Chapman MP, campaigning

The Early Day Motion  asks:

"That this House welcomes the formation of new governments in both Catalonia and Spain and hopes that members of both parliaments can begin the necessary process of respectful, positive dialogue; and requests that Catalan political prisoners be released from jail and those in exile, not least Clara Ponsati in Scotland, be allowed to return home without the threat of imprisonment."

The Motion has attracted five signatures so far, including three SNP MPs, Hywel Williams of Plaid Cymru, and Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford.

What is an Early Day Motion?

It's a statement that calls for a debate as soon as possible ('on an early day') in the House of Commons at Westminster. These statements, signed by MPs, are a way of drawing attention to a problem or a topic.

What You Can Do

Write to your MP urging her or him to sign the Early Day Motion.

Support Douglas Chapman's initiative on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dougchapmansnp
 

See our What You Can Do page for more actions!

Photo Credit: Twitter, https://twitter.com/DougChapmanSNP/status/1004983666643173376

s://twitter.com/DougChapmanSNP/status/1004983666643173376
https://twitter.com/DougChapmanSNP/status/1004983666643173376

Secret video released

In a controversial move, leading Catalan newspaper Ara has published a secretly-filmed video showing Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn and Raül Romeva, in the Estremera Prison in Spain.

Oriol Junqueras

The film shows the political prisoners giving classes - Oriol Junqueras gives a class to fellow-prisoners on philosophy - taking exercise, cleaning the communal spaces in the prison and writing. Families of the prisoners, organised as the Catalan Association for Civil Rights have complained about the attack on the privacy of the prisoners. In a Tweet released this morning they say that "...the conditions in the prison and the visitors regime are tough, and we do not understand this illegal recording  [of their lives]"

Davant les imatges que circulen dels presos polítics catalans, denunciem la vulneració dels seus drets de manera reiterada, ara el dret a la intimitat. Les condicions a presó i el règim de visites són durs i no entenem aquesta gravació feta il·legalment. #LlibertatPresosPolítics

— Ass. Catalana pels Drets Civils (@ACDretsCivils) June 7, 2018

What can you do?

Donate to the prisoners’ families fund, The Catalan Association for Civil Rights, which is helping to cover the costs of visits. You'll find details on our What you can Do page.

Write to the new Spanish President to demand the release of the political prisoners. For his address, and more actions, see our page on what you can do. 





Photo: by Generalitat de Catalunya, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55876947

800 miles, for 40 minutes through armour-plated glass

It is 395 miles, from Barcelona to Estremera Prison, and 366 to Alcalá de Henares, where Carme Forcadell and Dolors Bassa, the women political prisoners are held. That is a twice-a-month twelve-hour there-and-back slog on Spanish motorways, or more than €300* in train and taxi fares. And all that, for a too-brief moment of snatched conversation with your husband, mother, father, sister…

The political prisoners are held on remand. They are innocent men and women, who have not been convicted of any crimes. But Spanish high court judge Pablo Llarena has refused to allow them to move to a prison nearer home. And yesterday the Constitutional Court again refused a request for release from Josep Rull and Jordi Turull.



The 800 mile round trip represents one or two entire days out of the lives of the prisoners’ families, each fortnight. It’s hard to hold down a job, or keep the kids busy at school, if you have to be in a Spanish prison one day in fourteen. And that is without calculating the cost of food and accommodation.

Children who cannot visit their imprisoned parent regularly suffer emotionally and at school, according to researchers in the USA. Meanwhile, a report from the UK’s HM Inspectorate of Prisons, featured in the Howard League for Penal Reform blog, says that each 25-mile unit of distance means fewer visits to the prisoner. And researchers “suggest that the lives of women who support a family member in custody closely resemble those of women who are themselves incarcerated, as both often struggle with poverty, trauma and precarity.”

What can you do?

Donate to the prisoners’ families fund, The Catalan Association for Civil Rights, which is helping to cover the costs of visits. You'll find details on our What you can Do page.

Write to the new Spanish President to demand the release of the political prisoners. For his address, and more actions, see our page on what you can do. 



*Estimate based on current Renfe rail price Barcelona-Madrid return, midweek, for one adult and two children.