The ANC Urges the Catalans to Use the Mobilizations of the Independence Trial Verdict Response to “Take Strength” to Resume Unilateralism

Last week, the President of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Elisenda Paluzie, urged the Catalans to use “the impulse of the upcoming Independence Trial verdict” to make demonstrations capable of forcing the Catalan government to recover unity and re-make a roadmap for independence.

Paluzie also said that according to the roadmap of the ANC, unilateralism must be resumed when pro-independence parties get over 50% of the total votes in a Catalan general election. In this regard, she said that unilateralism is “complex” and that it must be “reinforced” with the legitimization of the votes.

The President of the ANC admitted that there is “disparity” within the pro-independence movement, but that has also occurred on other occasions, such as in 2012 and 2013. For this reason, she insisted on calling for unity “in the face of the foreseeable condemnation of the political leaders and entities that serves to resume the path to independence and bring the objective back on the top of the agenda.”

Regarding the discomfort expressed by ERC with ANC’s strategy in the last few weeks, Paluzie pointed out that “it depends on the moment and the strategy adopted, the ANC may disturb one party or another.” She also made it clear that if there were people who ever insulted ERC leaders in a demonstration, it is an “isolated fact that the ANC does not support at all […] we have to be very hard in the content, but very elegant in the forms,” added Elisenda Paluzie

International Observers Find Violation of Numerous Human Rights and Legal Procedures During the Catalan Independence Trial

The organization of international observers Trial Watch – Catalan Referendum Case (ITW) has concluded in its preliminary report that the trial of the 12 independentist leaders held at the Supreme Court over the past few months is a “political cause” in which “fundamental rights such as free assembly, political participation and freedom of expression have been violated.” The group also considers that there is no basis for condemning political prisoners for rebellion and seditious crimes, and that they have been “reworked” to adapt them to the Criminal Code.

The ITW concludes that organising citizen demonstrations was not capable of “transforming the constitutional order or preventing the legitimate public authority from carrying out its functions,” since in this case a state of siege had been applied. The conclusions of the report also make a special mention of the cases of the former president of the ANC, Jordi Sànchez, the president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart and the former president of the Parliament, Carme Forcadell: “Your behavior cannot be criminal because it was protected in the exercise of fundamental rights, such as the right of assembly or freedom of expression.”

The ITW also considers that the investigation carried out by prosecutor Javier Zaragoza in the National Court on November 5, 2015, has shown that it is a general cause: “The object was to investigate the entire Catalan political movement,” which is forbidden in the Spanish legal system.

More than 30 human rights organizations support the 20 points with which observers summarize the most important violations in the trial. Although not part of the process after the Supreme Court questioned the quality of observers, the group of experts hopes that the judges will accept the criticisms in the report. They also expect their analysis to help the defendants continue their path to European courts after the ruling, which will be known in the coming months.

Jailed Catalan leader Jordi Cuixart: “The solution to the problem of blind obedience is civil disobedience”

The President of the Catalan grassroots and pro-independence organization Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, said on Thursday that “the solution to the problem of blind obedience is civil disobedience.” In a letter that was read during the opening of the first days on civil disobedience organized by the entity, Cuixart explained that in order to reverse the “dramatic” situation that society suffers from, it is necessary to train “even more” and to exercise the practice of non-violence.

“To instruct us is essential because the powerful know how to criminalize the protest and cause dissent by putting us traps,” he argued. From the prison of Lledoners, he told the conference attendees that “we will do it again” and cited “constant, persevering and full of courage mobilization.” “The only battle that is lost is the one that is abandoned,” he concluded at the end of the letter.

Mauri, vice-president of Òmnium, also intervened in the conference to say that injustices in society must give rise to “non-violent civil disobedience.”

“We are in a moment of regression of rights. Civil disobedience is the most useful and legitimate instrument for the situation we are experiencing. Given the situation of the degradation of rights that we suffer in Catalonia, Spain and Europe, we understand that the committed, mobilized and organized citizens have the obligation to face it.”

Mauri emphasized that Cuixart’s phrase “we will do it again […] is not just a slogan, but is a guide for the coming years. All rights are defended by exercising them. We have a duty of citizenship, of civic commitment and moral obligation to defend them when they are violated, tried or condemned.”

President Puigdemont’s Defense Denounces that “Some People in the EU Parliament don’t Act in Accordance with the Law”

Lawyer Simon Bekaert, one of Puigdemont and Comín’s lawyers, said in an interview for ACN that he hopes that the veto of the two elected MEPs by some members of the EU Parliament is “illegal” and warns that his team is ready to appeal to an instance such as the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) if necessary.

“We are aware that there are forces within the European Parliament and its administration that are trying to prevent that both Puigdemont and Comín from occupying their seats on July 2.” As to whether or not they will wait until day 2 to take legal action at European level, Bekaert merely said: “We will see.”

Whether or not to go to an international body and the legal strategy, he insisted, it will depend “on how the European Parliament reacts or does not react. We hope that they have considered the arguments we have made and that they comply with European law,” he says. In this regard, he emphasizes that it is not only a legal matter, but also one of “credibility and legitimacy.” If Puigdemont and Comín cannot occupy their seats, the institution will lose legitimacy as a democratic institution,” he warned, at a time when, according to him, “there are many people who have already lost faith in European institutions.” In any case, he says that if it arrives to the point where they should go to the Luxembourg court they will ask for a “quick resolution” because “there is much at stake.” “It is not a question of Catalonia or independence, but a greater concern: the legitimacy of the European Parliament as an institution and the fact that there are people trying to prevent elected MEPs from taking their seats,” he said.

For the lawyer, European law is “very clear in one thing: that members of the EU Parliament do not represent their country but the citizens who voted for them.” Thus, he recounts, European legislation says “clearly” that the European Parliament “must take into account the results of the elections and based on the results must declare the elected persons as members of the chamber.” In addition, he explains that all the members of the chamber “must act personally and without ties.” In this regard, he considers that the fact that they were obliged to abide by the [Spanish] Constitution “is clearly a violation of these principles.” “There is no other MEP from any other country that has to go to his country to make an oath of loyalty, therefore it is very clear that it is an illegal condition.”

Summary Penultimate Week of Independence Trial: June 4

On Tuesday, the concluding statements from the prosecuting lawyers (at the Supreme Court trial of 12 Catalan political leaders) were heard:

– Spain’s Public Prosecutor affirmed that the 2017 Catalan independence referendum was “a coup d’état.”

– Attorney Javier Zaragoza affirmed that the roadmap to independence, including a referendum and a declaration of independence in 2017, was a violent insurrection, uprising, involving coercion.

“It was a serious attack on the foundations of the constitution with illegal, coercive methods, using violence when needed,” he said.

Zaragoza also said that the 9 jailed Catalan leaders were not political prisoners.

“There are no political prisoners, they are not political prisoners,” he insisted. He also rejected the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s report urging the “immediate” release of the leaders, accusing the institution of ignoring Spain’s arguments.

– Spanish prosecutor Moreno: “There was violence, it was necessary for their cause, they knew the vote would provoke confrontations, and yet they still called people to vote knowing what would happen.”

– Public Prosecutor Fidel Cadena said that the jailed Catalan leaders should be charged with rebellion because “they violated the constitution and the foundations of the Spanish state.”

– Rosa María Seoane, the Solicitor General, affirmed that the “trial against the Catalan leaders is completely transparent” and denied that their right to defense was undermined during the process.

– The popular prosecutor of the far-right Vox party, accused the political prisoners of perpetrating “the most sophisticated and original coup d’état against a democracy ever seen in a modern society.”

– Javier Ortega Smith, one of the lawyers for far-right Vox, affirmed that the accused were part of a “criminal organization.”

Vox lawyers concluded by saying that they wanted tough sentences “so that no one dares to attack the constitutional order again.”

Additional Information

– The trial will resume on Tuesday, June 11, at 9.30am with the closing arguments from the defense lawyers. The lawyers will only have one hour to defend each of the accused.

– The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calls for the immediate release of the jailed Catalan leaders Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart, and Oriol Junqueras.

– “Prosecutors are trying to define a new concept of violence” says defense lawyer.

Catalan Independence Trial: Summary May 27, 28, and 29

May 27, Day 47 of Trial

– The documentary evidence phase started on Monday, showing documents and presenting hundreds of videos from both the defense and the accusation related to what happened during Autumn of 2017.

– Videos were not shown during the witness stage of the trial, and in this documentary phase no commentary on the footage was allowed.

– The evidence shown on Monday included police reports on activities allegedly related to the misuse of public funds and the seizure of material for the referendum.

– The accusation presented videos showing “violence” perpetrated by the voters against the Spanish police.

– The defense presented videos showing the “violence” perpetrated by the Spanish police during the October 1 referendum.

May 28, Day 48 of Trial

– On Tuesday, videos presented by the prosecution team aimed to establish that violence was used in the 2017 independence bid were shown.

– Footage shown in court featured protesters and voters peacefully trying to prevent the Spanish police from entering polling stations during the 2017 independence referendum.

– In many cases the state prosecutor was unable to say where or when the footage had been recorded.

– The prosecutor was often unable to tell the defense lawyers where exactly the video had been recorded, saying that the intention had been to show the “general climate everywhere.”

May 29, Day 49 of Trial

– The defense teams presented their video evidence in court.

– The videos shown in court featured some of the jailed leaders calling for the people to keep a peaceful attitude during the referendum.

– One of the videos featured the jailed Catalan leader Jordi Cuixart openly rejecting “violence and non-democratic behavior.”

– Videos with images of police violence against peaceful voters and protesters at numerous locations across Catalonia were shown.

– The lawyers for the defense were able to identify when and where each of the videos had been filmed.

Additional Information

– The defense will present their summaries on June 10 before the defendants also share their closing remarks.

– The public prosecutor confirmed the charges of rebellion against most of the defendants on trial and requests prison sentences of up to 25 years for organizing a referendum and declaring independence in late 2017.

– The prosecutor requested 17 years in jail for the former parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and for the Catalan leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez.

– The prosecutor requested 16 years in jail for the former Catalan ministers Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Dolors Bassa, Raül Romeva, and Joaquim Forn.

– The solicitor general’s office requested 7 and 12 years in prison for sedition.

– The private prosecutor representing the far-right party Vox requested 74 years in prison for the former ministers and 62 years for Sànchez and Cuixart.

– Vox reduced its demands regarding Santi Vila, reducing the charges to disobedience, which carries no prison sentence.

Independence Trial: Most Important Testimonies April 29 and 30

April 29, Day 37 of Trial

Ivo Vajgl, MEP for Slovenia, told the court that he considers jailed Catalan leader Romeva a “defender of human rights” and that his relationship with him involved conflict resolution.

“I’ve always said that Romeva has always acted peacefully and has defended dialogue. We collaborated on issues related to peace and war in Syria and the Middle East,” said Vajgl.

“The Catalan question was always present in the European Parliament. Everyone has their own opinion, mine would be to face the issue with dialogue,” explained Vajgl.

Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes said that she and Romeva were both members of a subcommittee of defense in the European Parliament.

“I am absolutely convinced that Romeva is a true democrat who is pro-human rights. Regarding Catalonia, we spoke in private; he was in favor of dialogue and an agreement,” Gomes told the Court.

The Portuguese politician explained that she attended a conference on the Catalan conflict and possible solutions.

“I went to it because the ideas on how to solve it seemed interesting to me. They were pushing for an agreed referendum solution, like what we saw in Scotland,”  explained Gomes.

German MP Andrej Hunko said that he was invited to Catalonia by Diplocat, the diplomacy council of Catalonia, but affirmed that his visit was not official as an international observer.

“We wrote a report [on the referendum], making particular mention of the violence from the Spanish police,” said Hunko

“I didn’t see any act of violence by protesters against police cars,” said Lluís Llach, singer and former Catalan MP, in reference to the protests on September 20, 2017, against Spanish police raids of Catalan government buildings.

“We take to the streets because we know that the protests are peaceful, and should anyone engage in violent acts, we would leave them alone,” Llach told the court.

April 30, Day 38 of Trial 

A witness said that the Spanish police officers were very violent during the referendum. He saw police officers “beating people and pulling them by the hair.” Another witness said he was forcefully removed by officers, who then kicked him “twice in the back.”

Joan Pau Salvadó, who participated in the 2017 independence referendum, said that the police beat voters despite being peaceful. “The voters were raising their hands and chanting: we only want to vote.” “It was the most important day of my life,” added Salvadó. 

Albert Salvadó, another voter, told the court: 

“The first officers brought people out without violence, but they were forceful. After that, more police arrived, and they exercised explicit violence. I saw several friends with T-shirts with blood.” 

Salvadò also said that there was neither violence nor threats against the Spanish security forces by voters. 

David Elvira, former head of the Catalan health department, CatSalut, said that some 1,066 people received medical assistance for injuries provoked by the Spanish police violence during the referendum.

Independence Trial: Most Important Testimonies April 15, 16, and 17

April 15, Day 31 of Trial 

A Spanish Civil Guard officer affirmed that former speaker and government officials were “key” players in the bid to achieve independence. 

Former Catalan Speaker Carme Forcadell “was an essential figure to pass [independence] laws,” said the officer. Former Catalan police chief Josep Lluís Trapero was also “essential in the independentist strategy,” he added.

The same officer also affirmed that according to their investigations,  Catalan official Josep Maria Jové “was the person who had to authorize the expenses to hold the referendum.”

 

April 16, Day 32 of Trial 

Spanish police officers talked about alleged violence by voters during the 2017 independence referendum. They also accused their Catalan counterparts of inaction. “They didn’t act at all,” said a Spanish police officer.

 

April 17, Day 33 of Trial

Spanish police officers accused their Catalan counterparts of inaction during the 2017 independence referendum. “Whenever they saw us, they reported our arrival to someone and then left,” said a Spanish police officer.

Some officers claimed that their operation to stop the referendum was “exemplary,” and denied the use of violence against the voters.

 

Additional Information

The day 32 of Trial, marked one and a half years since the Catalan political prisoners Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez were unjustly jailed by the Spanish State.

On the day 33 of trial, Members of Canada’s Research Institute on Self-Determination of Peoples said the Spanish Supreme Court might be infringing defendants’ rights.

Professor of international and constitutional law at the Montreal University, Daniel Turp: “We believe there are issues relating to human rights, to the protection of the right of the accused, and maybe the larger issue of freedom of expression, of association, maybe even the issue of the right of self-determination of the Catalan people.”

 

Turp’s colleague Stéfanie Tougas: “The issue of how they are treated is going to be part of our report, because we don’t understand how they can be so badly treated.”

NOTE: Neither the police nor any court has been able to prove yet the veracity of any of the aforementioned police testimonies in the Independence Trial. Those statements appear rather to be just a mere police/court fabrication aimed at unjustly imprison the Catalan democratic leaders for many years, even decades. 

Attacks against Catalans in the Aftermath of Saturday’s Historic Demonstration in Madrid

Users of social networks have reported aggressions in Madrid in the aftermath of the historic rally held by pro-independence organizations on Saturday against the trial of the Catalan political prisoners and to defend the right to self-determination.

Tweet: In front of me, they have broken this banner and the Estelada at the head of a colleague, in front of us. It was a group of 5 or 6 fascists.

 

At least two buses returning from Madrid received the impact of a rock, which broke one of the side glasses of the vehicles. One of the rocks would have been thrown from one of the bridges of the Spanish capital, located above the road where the vehicle was circulating, when was leaving the city.Tweet: Two buses – so far – with a broken glass at the exit of Madrid after receiving the impact of a stone. One from Canet and another from Barcelona’s Eixample with people who return from the demonstration.

 

Image: One of the side glasses of a bus broken by stones thrown by fascists.

 

Image: One of the side glasses of a bus broken by stones thrown by fascists.

 

Several people have also reported the placement of spikes below the tires of numerous buses.

Tweet: Spikes have been placed below the tires of the buses.

International Trial Watch Warns of Irregularities in the Independence Trial

International Trial Watch, an organization which is monitoring the trial against the Catalan political prisoners over the 2017 referendum, warned on Monday that the Spanish Supreme Court hadn’t admitted “crucial” evidence about the Catalan leaders which would clearly undermine the defendant’s rights to a proper legal defense.

In a press release via Twitter, International Trial Watch has explained that the outcome of the past week will be presented by 6 observers: William Mozdzierz, member of the American Bar Association; Dominique Nogueres, president of the French League of Human Rights; Alexandre Faro, advocate and member of the International Federation of Human Rights; Frédéric Ureel, advocate and member of European Democracy Advocates; Fabio Marcelli, lawyer of the European Association Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights; and Javier Pérez Royo, professor of Constitutional Law of the University of Seville.

➡ The accusations do not take into account that the actions of the defendants may be covered by fundamental rights. If so, it would not be possible at the same time that the accused had committed a crime.

The observers have remarked that the accusations “do not have in mind that the acts of the accusers could have violated their fundamental rights.” “If that were the case, it would not be possible at the same time that the accused had committed any crime,” they added.

The platform also warned that it would examine”procedural anomalies” related to the court not suspending the trial to incorporate documentation that the defenders do not dispose of and if the accusation may have “violated procedures.”

International Trial Watch has verified that the Supreme Court has not reserved a room for the observers, which has led “hours of queues” to the portal to access the room. In addition, they have remembered that on the first day of trial, far-right Vox sympathizers “organized the queue and distributed numbers of entry;” days later the police did it.

The observers have estimated that approximately 40 people can enter as public. For this reason, International Trial Watch has reiterated to the court the need to reserve places in the room for observers.