CATALONIA
'The trial will continue next week before breaking
up for Easter. Nine of the accused will spend that holiday in
preventative detention in Madrid prisons, 1000 km from friends and
families, although five who are candidates in the upcoming Spanish and
European elections have asked to be released so they can campaign. I
would not hold my breath about that!
So we will live in a topsy turvy world where the prosecution, backed up the Spanish Government, presents a picture
of a violent rebellion in Catalonia in the autumn of 2017, while what
the world saw on the day of the referendum was Spanish paramilitary
police smashing their way into polling stations to seize ballot boxes
and batoning those waiting to vote and those protesting peacefully
against them. Interestingly there is growing concern over the trial
among not just human rights lawyers but politicians in the French,
British, German, Belgian and Portuguese Parliaments and the Spanish
authorities are clearly rattled.'
