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.