News

Court stretches things to the limit

Judge imprisons Turull, Rull, Bassa, Forcadell and Romeva, while Rovira goes into exile in Switzerland

What everyone had feared came to pass, with the Supreme Court deciding to jail the Catalan officials Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Carme Forcadell, Dolors Bassa and Raül Romeva. Despite two of them giving up their seats, the MPs from the pro-independence PDeCAT and ERC parties were judged to be at risk of repeat offending, and if left free would continue to work towards the independence of Catalonia. However, above all, the court was concerned about the risk that they might try to flee.

Despite the ERC party’s Marta Rovira deciding to go into exile rather than appear in court, the judge said that it was “reasonable” to assume the five officials had no intention of fleeing due to the fact that they turned up for their court appearances. Nevertheless, the judge also said that given the seriousness of the potential sentences involved (more than 30 years in prison) the “temptation” to flee was too great to allow them to remain free.

The news that Rovira had fled was the first blow of the day, causing incredulity in her party, followed by sadness when she made a letter public explaining her reasons for leaving. Her colleagues presumed she was on her way to Madrid for her court appearance when in fact she was on her way to Switzerland.

In response, the Supreme Court issued an international arrest warrant for Rovira, as well as for Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig, all now resident in Brussels, and for Clara Ponsatí, who recently moved to Scotland where she is now working at the University of Saint Andrews .

Some of the above are charged with rebellion, which carries a 30-year sentence, others for misuse of funds, which also carries a prison sentence, and disobedience, which has no prison sentence.

Sign in. Sign in if you are already a verified reader. I want to become verified reader. To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader.
Note: To leave comments on the website you must be a verified reader and accept the conditions of use.