PROTESTS have been held outside a Madrid court as a young Catalan independence activist went on trial for demonstrating against the imprisonment of nine independence leaders in October 2019.
Dani Gallardo, 23, from Andalusia, has been in detention for more than a year and faces a six-year sentence if the Madrid provincial court convicts him for publicly expressing his support for pro-independence Catalan leaders. He is being supported by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), whose head Jordi Sanchez, is one of the nine public figures already jailed for their part in the 2017 referendum.
Protests were mounted on Friday and yesterday and will continue next week.
ANC president Elisenda Paluzie was unable to attend the demonstration because of coronavirus restrictions, but in a video message she highlighted the injustice of the sentence facing the young man. She said: “Spanish repression also massively affects those few brave individuals of the Castilian people and the people of Madrid who have always stood up and shown solidarity with the cause of the Catalan people’s fundamental rights and its self-determination, and against the repression exercised against the Catalan national minority.”
Gallardo’s pre-trial detention during the pandemic is said to have posed a serious threat to his health. Spain has refused to free political prisoners as requested by UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet earlier this year.
Prosecutors accused Gallardo of assaulting police officers during one of the demonstrations after Catalan leaders were convicted of sedition for calling a referendum two years earlier.
Gallardo denied taking part in the protests and said he was having a drink with a friend when they found themselves surrounded by agents.
He told the court he had used his body to protect his friend and added: “I’d rather be beaten up myself than her.”
As other trials arising from the protests continue to make their way to court, 13 people are being investigated over the blocking of the main AP-7 road near the French border last November.
Organised by Tsunami Democratic, that protest saw more than 1000 people shut the road. More than 200 of them are under investigation.
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