Supreme Court postpones decision on parole for political prisoners until next week

BarcelonaPolitical prisoners will have to wait at least one more week to find out whether or not they can all enjoy parole. The meeting of the criminal division of the Supreme Court held this morning finally ended without any decision being taken, despite the fact that the meeting was to serve to "deliberate and resolve" the appeals lodged by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the prisoners' defences, as reported by the high court earlier in the week. Supreme Court sources said the deliberation would continue at a next meeting scheduled for next week.

Among the more than thirty appeals that the court, presided over by Manuel Marchena, has to resolve are those presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the beginning of November against paroles for the former speaker, Carme Forcadell, and the former Councillor Dolors Bassa. They are currently on parole and the judge has to decide whether he will maintain it or not.

In the case of the imprisoned independence leaders in Lledoners, however, parole was suspendd when the Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal. It did so by invoking the change in the rules established by the Supreme Court this summer: an appeal by the Prosecutor's Office is sufficient to suspend the application of any element of prison classification. In his case, therefore, the judge considered that parole had to be suspended until the Supreme Court decided on the content of the Prosecutor's appeal.

Foreseeing that this Thursday the Supreme Court could revoke her sister's parole, this morning ERC deputy Montse Bassa published a tweet where she said: "I am not ashamed to say that yesterday was a very hard afternoon at home. There are only a few hours left to find out what's going to happen...". And she claimed to feel "rage".