‘Grotesque abridgment of human rights’ at Catalan Trial, says Nobel Peace laureate

Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sees a “grotesque abridgment of human rights” at the Catalan Trial in Madrid. Specifically, she said that by jailing the pro-independence leaders, the Spanish judiciary is “already implying they are guilty.”

This is “the message they’re sending to all people in all of Spain,” she said, adding that what is being communicated is akin to “we’re gunna make sure they don’t go anywhere, and we’re gunna get ‘em.”

This is not the only violation that Williams saw in following the Catalan Trial, now on day 28. “In addition to abridging the right of referendum,” she said, “they’re abridging freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of peaceful protest.”