Jailed minister’s wife claims incarcerated leaders are ‘hostages’

The jailed pro-independence leaders are not normal prisoners, but “hostages.” That is according to Laura Masvidal, the wife of former MP Joaquim Forn. In an interview with the Catalan News Agency (ACN), Masvidal insisted that “they have not done anything wrong and none of the judge’s rulings have any legal standing.” Her husband’s appeal for release was turned down on Friday despite him giving up his post as an MP in the Catalan Parliament. “Maybe they are being held as hostages until there is no one left out there who thinks like them,” she said.

Masvidal also criticized the fact that they are being held in custody in prisons in the Madrid region, around 650 km away from their homes. “It is part of the punishment, they are fine with the families suffering this,” she said, at the same time branding the Spanish prison system “anachronistic.” According to Masvidal, inmates have to ask for authorization by writing on tracing paper, while the policy for receiving packages and contact with relatives is “strict.” 

Legal proceedings in European courts

During the interview, Masvidal admitted that little more can be done to get them released before their trials start in Spain. That is why the defenses of the jailed leaders want to begin legal proceedings in the European courts. In fact, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, who are also behind bars, took their cases to the United Nations last week. Their defense is being aided by British lawyer, Ben Emmerson, who said that their preemptive imprisonment is a “classic case of arbitrary political detention.”