A UNITED Nations working group has called for the immediate release of three of Catalonia’s political prisoners – grassroots activists Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart and Oriol Junqueras, the former Catalan vice-president.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention report says their detention and imprisonment are violations of fundamental rights – mainly their freedom of speech – and all three should be paid compensation.
Sànchez, Cuixart and Junqueras were the first of the jailed leaders to take their cases to the UN in February last year.
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Other political prisoners on trial over the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, ex-ministers Joaquim Forn, Josep Rull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa, submitted their cases to the group last July.
Human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson, who has been pursuing their cases, told The National: “This ruling marks the turning of the tide against the blinkered and violent repression of Catalan aspirations for independence."
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He added: “Spain must immediately release the political prisoners, or face a rising tide of international condemnation.
“I said last year that Catalonia was closer to achieving independence than many people realised.
“This decision is a giant leap forward in that direction.
“It’s now up to the political leaders in Catalonia to respond as one would expect from a government-in-waiting of an independent state.”
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