Spain jails Catalan separatist leaders, protesters take to streets
English translation of the opinion on the case by the UN working group on arbitrary detention: [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;int.assemblea.cat&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2019&#x2F;06&#x2F;WorkingGroupOnArbitraryDetention.Opinion6.2019-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;int.assemblea.cat&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2019&#x2F;06&#x2F;Working...</a> ] (original at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ohchr.org&#x2F;Documents&#x2F;Issues&#x2F;Detention&#x2F;Opinions&#x2F;Session84&#x2F;A_HRC_WGAD_2019_6.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ohchr.org&#x2F;Documents&#x2F;Issues&#x2F;Detention&#x2F;Opinions&#x2F;Se...</a>)<p>Summary: they deny the claims of violence, reject the preventive prison (~2 years for those being condemned to prison today) and denounce the lack of presumption of innocence and an impartial tribunal (119 to 124 and 132 and 133 if you want a quick look).<p>Violence by spanish police during the &quot;independence referendum&quot; [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;spanishpolice.github.io" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;spanishpolice.github.io</a> (a few hundred videos) ]. Violence by catalan people against spanish police on the same day: 
[ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;8ak9224HG_E" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;8ak9224HG_E</a> (guy throwing a chair to a police entering a school) ], [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;DyE0DtVd4Q8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;DyE0DtVd4Q8</a> (various people throwing portable fences to the police) ]<p>But the most blatant case if that of Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sánchez. They are civilian leaders, not political authorities. They presided Òmnium Cultural (cultural association) and ANC (independentist association) respectively. Today condemned to 9 years each. For context, right before the &quot;independence referendum&quot; there were some searches to investigate the referendum and the people involved. One of them happened in the building of the regional ministry of economy (September 20th, 2017). There, a spontaneous rally started. A few hours later, Òmnium Cultural, even though they weren&#x27;t the ones to start the rally, filled the documents to formally communicate it to the city hall. Some will say they were trying to obstaculize the judicial operation, and others that they were trying to keep the spontaneous rally under control.
Well, one can take a look at the images:<p>- Police car destroyed, one the most famous images when trying to show the violence of the independentists: [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pbs.twimg.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;DKPUVBoW0AAa4aw?format=jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pbs.twimg.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;DKPUVBoW0AAa4aw?format=jpg</a> ]. Police left the car parked there, with long guns still inside. Many demonstrators, reporters and photographers climbed on top of the car during the day. At least one of the windows was broken by one of the members of the police at the end of the day, as he himself admitted during the trial.<p>- Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sánchez climbed on top of the police car at the end of the day too in order to try to dissolve the rally (they also spoke for a couple minutes before this, with the usual &quot;thanks for coming, we will continue rallying tomorrow, we will vote, don&#x27;t be afraid, bla bla&quot;): [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;23XrRpfMaw8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;23XrRpfMaw8</a> ]. They literally say: &quot;as much as possible and in a peaceful way, let&#x27;s dissolve the demonstration for today&quot;. In the trial, Lluís Llach, a famous Catalan singer (temporarily involved in politics at that point), said that he was there and that they initially tried to dissolve the rally from a stage that the association set up on another point on the street, but he eventually suggested that people didn&#x27;t hear them from that point (as the stage was intentionally at a certain distance from the building [they played some music during the day to distend the mood]), and that they should climb to the police car to speak from there. They <i>told the police</i> that they were going to climb on their car, and they didn&#x27;t receive a negative response, so they just went with it. During the day, they also set a small corridor [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.publico.es&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;26&#x2F;5b324d03dca57.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.publico.es&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2018&#x2F;06&#x2F;26&#x2F;5b324d03dca57.jpg</a> ] to try to assist the people who had to enter and leave the building. Arguably not a good guarantee for the judicial police (who were already inside), but it makes it very hard to argue that they weren&#x27;t trying to collaborate.<p>For those rallies they get a sentence of 9 years of prison each.<p>This is only the tip of the iceberg. The historical and political context is much more complex, I only went over a few details. The independentist leaders were at the very least fools for saying they would achieve independence in a year and a half; they played too lose with parlamentary regulations, and they systematically failed to properly address half of the population that doesn&#x27;t want independence. But none of that justifies a single year of prison. 2 have already passed. They had a parliamentary majority in catalonia and a clear mandate to organize a referendum. Both the regional opposition and the Spanish government attrociously defected from politics and pushed towards the judicialization of the whole process. The case of the Jordi&#x27;s is just absurd. Carme Forcadell, the previous president of the catalan parliament, gets 11 years and a half of prison for basically allowing the debate about self-determination (well, this case, like many of the others, is way more complex juridically, so you are warned about my over-simplification here). Just because Spanish media says catalan independentists are violent, that doesn&#x27;t make it true (even the sentence admits this). This is not even about self-determination, it&#x27;s about basic democracy and the right to protest. Meanwhile, the arbitrary detentions continue.<p>I hope someone hears this guy in Europe: [ <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;yanisvaroufakis&#x2F;status&#x2F;1183659498227019778" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;yanisvaroufakis&#x2F;status&#x2F;11836594982270197...</a> ]