ONE of the accused in the Catalan independence referendum trial has called for an election debate to be held in the prison where he is incarcerated.
Jordi Sanchez – a pro-independence candidate for Together for Catalonia (JxCat) in Spain’s April 28 general election – was sent to pre-trial detention more than a year ago for his part as an activist in the 2017 independence bid.
The former head of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) made the request to the Spanish secretary of state responsible for prisons and the country’s electoral board.
READ MORE: Catalan trial: Spanish civil guard admits he broke police car windows
Laura Borras, his number two on the JxCat ticket, said he and the other imprisoned candidate, former vice-president Oriol Junqueras, had not been found guilty and their rights should remain intact.
“If you cannot leave the prison, then the electoral debate should be done in prison,” she said.
In the trial itself, a former German MP, who was in Catalonia observing the October 1 referendum, told the Supreme Court he had been impressed by the calm attitude of would-be voters as Spanish police fought their way into polling stations to halt the poll. Bernhard von Grünberg said people had displayed a “determined discipline” as they turned out to vote.
He added: “Despite threats, people went to vote, waited for many hours, were subject to intimidation, and didn’t resort to violence.”
Von Grünberg said he had visited polling stations in Barcelona and Girona on the day of the vote, and told how Spanish officers “broke into polling stations, breaking doors, and clearing people out”.
Meanwhile, Spanish prosecutors are bringing charges of disobedience against Catalan president Quim Torra after he allegedly failed to comply with orders from the country’s electoral board.
The charges relate to his alleged failure to remove eye-catching, pro-independence, yellow-ribbon symbols from the government’s headquarters in Barcelona before Spain’s general election.
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