Relatives of Catalan leaders in jail or exile denounce ‘false’ facts at UN

Family members of pro-independence Catalan leaders either in prison or exiled abroad, under the name Catalan Association of Civil Rights (ACDC), spoke before the United Nations at their 38^th reunion of Council of Human Rights on June 19.

During their speech, ACDC members denounced that the “false” facts on which Judge Pablo Llarena is basing himself on for the so-called ‘independence case’ leveled against their relatives.

Attorney Jordi Palou-Loverdos said this during his speech delivered at the UN, adding that “some judges” acting in such a way against social and political leaders “does not comply with the principles of judicial independence” established by the UN General Assembly.

'False facts' 

Palou-Loverdos noted that there are sixteen individuals in preemptive prison or in exile, and that “not even” was their right to effective legal protection respected, as some received summons for the crime of rebellion “with fewer than 24 hours’ notice and more than 500 km more home.” 

The lawyer also denounced that on May 24 Judge Llarena added to his resolution “false facts described by the [Spanish] prosecutor, the veracity of which was not verified by either of them.” This resolution, added Palou-Loverdos, denied the petition for freedom to one of the political leaders who has been in prison “for more than seven months already.”

'Us' versus 'them' 

In terms of linguistic details, the attorney also noted a particularity: in another resolution, the judge worded the text from the first person plural, ‘us’ and ‘we,’ inasmuch “placing himself in the situation of victim of the procedure,” argued Palou-Loverdos.

Concluding the intervention, the representative of ACDC urged the Spanish government to “take advantage of the opportunity it has” to meet the norms and principles of international instruments of Human Rights, and for it to “follow the suggestions and recommendations” of the Human Rights organizations of the UN.