SCOTS are urged to send letters of solidarity to Catalan politicians and activists imprisoned in the wake of the independence declaration.
The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) has partnered with several Scottish organisations for the #DearCatalonia project after ten prominent men and women were taken into custody by Spanish authorities, pending trial.
The eight politicians and two campaigners include Vice President Oriol Junqueras i Vies, Justice Minister Carles Mundo Blanch and Josep Rull i Andreu, Minister for Territory and Sustainability.
They have been jailed without bail since November 2 and charges include rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in connection with the October 1 independence vote.
The ballot was carried out despite opposition from authorities in Madrid, who declared it unlawful, and violence meted out against members of the public by Spanish police.
Images of bloodied voters provoked international outcry, but most governments backed Spain’s crackdown on Catalan institutions in the wake of the unilateral declaration of independence that followed. However, thousands of Scots declared their support for Catalonia’s right to self-determination, with many joining The National’s #ScotsForCatalonia campaign.
Now the ANC has distributed almost 500 postcards in an initiative that encourages the jailed ten to “keep fighting”. Supporters can also print addressed material from the catalanprisoners.info website.
The project is backed by groups including Young Scots for Independence, SNP Friends of Catalonia and others, with Angela Haggerty of CommonSpace and Stuart Graham of Glasgow City Unison among speakers at an awareness event last Sunday.
Joaquim Gomez Ribas of the ANC told The National: “One of the keys to the independence movement is Catalonia is international awareness. Scotland shown its support numerous times. This is just one more way to do that.
“The prisoners are receiving these letters and they are answering them. They just did what people voted for them to do, and two of them are not even politicians, but leaders of political campaigns.”
Voting for the Catalan parliament opens on December 21, with seven of the eight detained ministers running as candidates, along with jailed activist Jordi Sanchez.
Meanwhile, ousted president Carles Puigdemont remains in self-imposed exile in Belgium and is fighting extradition to Spain. A poll for Spanish newspaper El Pais showed an even split between support for pro and anti-independence parties on Sunday.
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