One thousand US and European academics demand release of Catalonia’s “political prisoners”

BarcelonaNearly one thousand academics from the US and Europe demand that Spain’s “political prisoners” be released. These professors and university researchers have signed a manifesto on democracy.cat where they also demand “fair elections” on December 21. The manifesto is entitled “Petition for the release of Spain’s political prisoners and for fair elections in Catalonia on December 21st”, a demand addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres; Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council; and Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission.

The document begins by explaining that, following the referendum and Catalonia’s declaration of independence, the Spanish government dissolved the Catalan parliament, deposed the government of Catalonia, arrested eight cabinet ministers, including the vice president, and has been trying to have president Carles Puigdemont extradited, together with the remaining four ministers who are currently in Brussels “in an effort to ensure a fair hearing”.

The manifesto’s supporters believe that the comparison drawn by the Spanish prosecutor between the referendum on independence and an “armed coup d’état” reveals “Spain’s untenable position”. They also denounce a political persecution unheard of since Franco’s regime: “the Spanish government’s appeal to the rule of law cannot disguise a political persecution of an extent and intensity not seen since the Franco dictatorship”.

Furthermore, they insist that all of this has continued since the referendum, by extending judicial persecution to civil servants, mayors, teachers, journalists, and “any person who voices opinions on behalf of the citizens’ peaceful exercise of their democratic rights”.

The academics argue that Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has called “a snap election” in Catalonia on December 21 while prominent members of his government and the Senate “have simultaneously declared their intention to ignore any victory of pro-independence parties. Even without the incarceration of prominent political leaders and would-be candidates, their mistreatment in custody and persistent far-right violence against journalists and citizens, the response of the Spanish government is hardly creating a climate in which fair and free elections can be properly held”, they claim.

The professors and researchers note that Catalans insist on a democratic solution to the conflict and are willing to decide this matter through the ballot box. However, the academics believe that “in order for those elections to be an honest arbiter, certain conditions must be met” and, therefore, they have drawn up a list of requests addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission. They ask them “to stop condoning Spain’s undemocratic behaviour, including its misuse of the courts, its takeover of Catalan government institutions, its police violence, and its turning of a blind eye toward the more than one hundred incidents of far-right violence that have appeared after every unionist march”.

Furthermore, they demand that they guarantee Catalans’ civil and political rights as European citizens, including the freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of political expression, “which are currently being violated with impunity by the Spanish State”, and that they urge Spain to release the ten “political prisoners” currently in Spanish jails, whose summary judgement hearings and subsequent preventative custody in prison cells “is a travesty of European democracy, and whose participation in the election cannot be fairly executed from jail”.

The professors also demand that the UN and the European leaders guarantee that “no person or party will be prohibited from participating in the elections in Catalonia, and that Spain will not dictate which electoral programs are acceptable”. They also request that accredited international observers be provided “to ensure that the imposed December 21st elections in Catalonia are carried out fairly and honestly”.

The academics conclude that “the only peaceful solution to the conflict between Spain and Catalonia is a democratic one. It is time for the European and International communities to assert their influence in insisting that Catalan citizens be given the chance to express their opinion over the future of their country freely and democratically without fear of retribution in the courts, by police or by far-right extremists”.