A SCOT who has been held in a Catalan prison for more than a month is to appear in court today for a potential decision on his interim liberation.

William Aitken, who has lived and worked in Barcelona for more than four years, was arrested on February 17 during demonstrations in the city for jailed rapper Pablo Hasel.
Six other protesters were also arrested but they were released, leaving the 30-year-old Scot as the only one to remain in detention.

A judge said that as the holder of a UK passport post-Brexit, he was a “flight risk” as there was no reciprocal means of ensuring that he would return to the court.

He sent Aitken into pre-trial detention because he did not appear to have “any work or family roots in our country” – despite living in the Catalan capital for four years with his partner Fernanda Soler, who had given his residency documentation to the court.

She told The National yesterday that preparations were under way for friends and supporters to greet him at the court: “Everything is going good, we’re getting the support ready for him. Friends will be standing outside for him. We are super nervous but positive and strong.

“People really care about him here ... I spoke to him earlier and he is good, trying to keep himself busy as he is very nervous and anxious, but that’s expected as everything is happening tomorrow.”

Aitken is a former constituent of Lanark and Hamilton East MP Angela Crawley, the SNP’s shadow attorney general, who has urged Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to intervene. She said: “By holding William in detention, the judicial system is failing to recognise that he has built an entire life in Catalonia over four years, holding down a stable job and sharing an apartment with his Catalan partner.

“The Spanish authorities have the opportunity to do the right thing today and I urge them to allow William to return to his family in Catalonia while awaiting trial.”