Amnesty: rights of Catalan independence supporters ‘disproportionately restricted’

Amnesty International’s annual report on the state of human rights in the world includes the imprisonment of Catalan leaders for pursuing independence, as well as the use of violence by Spanish police officers trying to stop the referendum on independence last October.

“The rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of Catalan independence supporters were disproportionately restricted,” reads the report, which adds that “law enforcement officials used excessive force against demonstrators peacefully resisting” the enforcement of a court ruling to stop the referendum.