Jailed activist's lawyer calls on UN Rapporteur to press Spain to release prisoners

The Swiss lawyer of jailed activist Jordi Cuixart has demanded more pressure on Spain to release the pro-independence leaders from prison.

Olivier Peter has called on Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, to urge Spain to "release Jordi Cuixart, Jordi Sanchez and the other people arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental rights."

In early 2019, the Special Rapporteur conveyed his "concerns" over Cuixart's arrest to Spanish authorities, concerns that Peter believes still "have not been taken into account."

"By next Monday, the president of an NGO will have been arbitrarily detained in Spain for 1,000 days," the lawyer said in a debate at the UN Human Rights Council.

Peter has denounced Cuixart's imprisonment as "a serious violation of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly."

Cuixart was found guilty of sedition and given a nine-year prison sentence by the Spanish Supreme Court in October 2019 for his role in protests ahead of the 2017 referendum.

Amnesty International has made several calls for the release of Cuixart and fellow independence activist Jordi Sànchez and questioned the validity of their sentencing with regards to international human rights law.