SPAIN’S new Socialist Prime Minister has indicated a softening of tone towards Catalonia by suggesting it would be “reasonable” to move jailed politicians and activists to prisons closer to their homes.
Their families and pro-independence groups, who say the nine are political prisoners, have been calling for their release – or their transfer from institutions in Madrid – over the past eight months.
Mariano Rajoy, ousted as PM by Pedro Sanchez’s no-confidence motion, had refused to consider moving the prisoners. They are awaiting trial on charges including rebellion, which is punishable by up to 30 years’ imprisonment.
However, Sanchez said moving them would bring them “closer to their families and their lawyers” and they would be better able to prepare their defences for the trials which are due to start in autumn. He told Spanish broadcaster TVE: “Once the judicial investigation is over, it will be reasonable to transfer the prisoners to Catalonia. I hope we can open a new chapter in Catalonia.”
Other senior figures, including ousted former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and St Andrews University academic Clara Ponsati, are fighting extradition in Germany and Scotland. Belgium has refused to extradite three and Switzerland has said it does not extradite those wanted for “political crimes”.
Sanchez went on to say he wanted to remove the remains of dictator General Francisco Franco from the Valley of the Fallen – Spain’s most controversial memorial – and convert the site into a monument for reconciliation.
He said: “Spain cannot afford symbols that separate Spaniards,” and that he wanted to make it “a memorial about the fight against fascism”.
The remains of some 34,000 people who died in Spain’s civil war between 1936 and 1939, are buried alongside Franco in the mausoleum.
Conservatives have said opening up the graves would reopen a painful chapter in Spanish history, but Sanchez retorted: “It’s not about opening wounds, it’s about closing them.”
He added that his government would work to fulfil a resolution from last year to exhume Franco’s remains, give them to his family and turn the valley into a Spanish civil war memorial.
Meanwhile, Catalan Human Rights Ombudsman Rafael Ribo has presented a report detailing human rights abuses during and after the October 1 referendum, to Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, in Strasbourg.
Ribo also asked several EU bodies to ensure that Spain abides by its stated commitment to carry out an investigation into police actions during the October 1 referendum.
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