Judiciary members boycott Catalan Parliament president

The Catalan parliament speaker, Roger Torrent, denounced the existence of “political prisoners” in Spain at a speech to the Bar Association of Barcelona (ICAB). But this did not sit well with part of his audience of lawyers. In protest, some walked out and left the room.

Among the individuals that left while Torrent spoke and later returned to the event was the President of the Spanish Supreme Court in Catalonia Jesús Maria Barrientos, the Attorney General of Catalonia Francisco Bañeres, the former dean of ICAB and the former vice president of the Constitutional Court Eugeni Gay, and lawyer José María Fuster-Fabra. Additionally, the Attorney General for Barcelona, Concepció Taló, left the building itself.

The controversial comments that Torrent made were on the “crisis” that rule of law is undergoing in the country, that the separation of powers is “quaking” and that the “regression” in rights and freedoms has been observed with higher “intensity” in Catalonia. The Minister of Justice, Rafael Catalá, also participated in the event.