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.

Marta Rovira – Exiled

Friday 25 May marked nine weeks since Marta Rovira left Spain and went into exile on 23rd March, 2018 to avoid the Spanish Supreme Court Summons to face charges of rebellion.

Hundreds of people converged on La Plaça de la Catedral in Vic, the city of her birth. Marta Rovira, has been General Secretary of Esquerra Republicana (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia) since 2011 and a member of the Catalan Parliament since 2012.

Tributes were made by Elisenda Paluzie, President of the ANC and Marcel Mauri, Deputy leader of Omnium Cultural. Roger Torrent, President of the Catalan Parliament accompanied by former member of Parliament Carles Mundó paid tribute to Marta and in a rousing speech said,
“We will not move one millimetre and will not weaken until the prisoners are free and the exiles return.”

The most anticipated act of the evening was when Marta Rovira appeared in a video recorded in Switzerland, from where she thanked the organisers of the event stating that it gave her a lot of strength to go forward.
...which recalls a quotation by Ai Weiwei 21 June 2012, The Guardian
Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. They can delay that freedom but they can't stop it.

Photo of Marta Rovira by Raulpresseguer - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63944311