MEPs condemn threats by Spain’s Supreme Court related to Catalan political prisoners

A total of 36 MEPs from various political groups, including the five Catalan pro-independence MEPs, Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras, Clara Ponsatí, Diana Riba and Toni Comín, have sent a letter to the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, saying that the threats from Spain’s Supreme Court to Catalan prison officials are “unacceptable” and put the fight against Covid-19 at risk.

The letter begins by reminding Sánchez that both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatović, have demanded that governments release those who are imprisoned for political reasons, for minor offenses or other inmates who already have prison leaves, given the 2019 coronavirus crisis.

“Instead of considering the temporary release of the nine Catalan leaders in jail together with all the other prisoners under the same circumstances, the Spanish Supreme Court issued, on the 1st of April, a brief statement to the media warning that if Catalan Prison Boards -on the execution of their legal mandateallowed the Catalan leaders to spend at home the COVID-19 confinement period, they could face criminal charges. As a consequence, the release of the Catalan leaders was denied. This crystallizes the threats set in motion by the Supreme Court directed towards public officials, generating a discriminatory treatment”, reads a paragraph of the letter