FAMILIES of jailed Catalan ministers reacted with fury yesterday after video footage emerged of three high-profile figures – Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva and Joaquim Forn – illustrating their stark existence inside prison.
They can be seen carrying out daily tasks inside Madrid Penitentiary VII, Estremera – 50 miles from Madrid – such as washing floors and windows. In one segment Junqueras, former Catalan vice president and leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) can be seen delivering a lecture to some inmates on Greek philosophy.
Forn is filmed apparently writing his memoirs and exercising in a small outdoor patio.
But the trio, who have been in jail for more than seven months, are confined to their 11-square-metre cells for 16 hours a day. It was only a month ago that Junqueras and Forn were given separate cells.
The video was published on the website of Catalan daily newspaper ARA and broadcast on the television channel TV3.
Questions have been raised over how it was filmed and by whom, and lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde, who represents Junqueras and Romeva, said it was unacceptable: “Now, they’re taking away the very few rights they still have: intimacy and their own image.
“Such cruelty is unacceptable.”
Jaume Alonso Cuevillas, Forn’s lawyer, said prisoners were not allowed mobile phones and their legal representatives and visitors had to leave theirs outside, which mean this must have been recorded by an insider.
Forn’s wife, Laura Masvidal, said: “We knew that the images existed but obviously they had no permission to leave [the prison].
“The violation of their rights is constant, now is the right of privacy. This cannot happen. We reach limits of the violation of rights that are excessive. You have to ask for explanations in prison.”
Diana Ribas, Romeva’s wife, said the images were taken “illegally,” while inmates were not allowed to request transfers to establishments nearer their homes and families.
ERC general secretary, Marta Rivera, said: “Neither they nor their families deserve it. It’s disgraceful!”
“How is it that such a recording can be made inside a prison? And this does not exonerate the newspaper.”
Xavier García Albiol, leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP) in Catalonia, admitted he was “shocked” by the images, but he went on to dismiss calls for the prisoners to be transferred to Catalonia.
He said: “Let’s be real: Madrid is an hour away by plane, or five hours away by car. It would be more practical, but it’s not a matter of human rights, because this is not a prison in Vietnam or a third world country.”
The Catalan Government said it would demand an explanation from the Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs.
Justice Minister, Ester Capella, said: “The footage undermines their right to intimacy and one’s own image.”
A support group for prisoners’ relatives, the Catalan Association for Civil Rights, joined a chorus of criticism on social media, describing it as a “violation of rights in a repeated way, now the right to privacy”.
It said: “The conditions in the prison and the regime of visits are hard and we do not understand this recording done illegally.”
Catalans for Yes tweeted: “Ara publishes images of the Catalan political prisoners in Estremera Prison. The shame of Europe.”
However, ARA defended its use of the footage, and said the families had been notified before publication, which The National has verified.
Editor-in-chief, Esther Vera, said: “We believe that the informative value is obvious and therefore they should be published.
“Showing reality helps denounce injustice that should never go overlooked.”
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