Three UK Parliament MPs visit Catalonia’s political prisoners

A delegation of deputies from the UK Parliament visits today the president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, and some of the other political prisoners jailed in Lledoners. The group, which includes three MPs from the Scottish National Party (SNP), will also meet during this week with Catalan president Quim Torra, Parliament speaker Roger Torrent and elected members of CUP and  PSC, as well as representatives from civil society.

The aim of the delegation is to “draw the attention of British politicians about the situation in Catalonia”, as explained by MP Gavin Newlands. “We had never imagined that this could happen in the EU, it’s something that belongs to the past or elsewhere” said Newlands, who described the imprisonment of Catalan political leaders as “strange, weird and cruel”.

Newlands said that they want to have more information about the situation of prisoners and their trials, on the first anniversary of the October 1 referendum. The MP is convinced that “if this had happened elsewhere in the EU, the Commission, Heads of State and Governments in all of Europe would have condemned it”. According to him, the silence of the EU must end and the Catalan question has to reach the “radar” of European and United Kingdom politicians.

Newlands is accompanied by Douglas Chapman and Ronnie Cowan. The three MPs are part of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia (APPG) in the House of Commons.