Prisoners make transfer request
Catalan political prisoners petition prison service to transfer them from Madrid to be near their families
The nine Catalan political prisoners are forming a common judicial front for the first time. Those with young children will request a transfer to a prison in Catalonia in order to protect and preserve the rights of children and young people, as supported by different international organisations. The president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, was the first to make the request to the Secretary General of the Prison Services, which answers to the Spanish Interior Ministry, for his transfer to a Catalan prison. He did so on the advice of lawyer Carlos García Castaño, an expert in prison law. Former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras and MPs Raül Romeva, Josep Rull and Jordi Sànchez will now do the same.
The request is based on current legislation establishing the criterion of the inmate’s maximum proximity to their home to avoid their becoming uprooted. In addition, as established in article 18/1 of the Spanish Constitution, the right to family life and privacy must be guaranteed despite the situation of confinement.
García Castaño also considers that should the request not be accepted, the children’s rights to a relationship with their father would have been violated, a right recognised under both Spanish and international law. The United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, which Spain has signed, obliges states to respect the right of children separated from one of their parents to maintain a relationship and direct contact on a regular basis.
Jordi Cuixart’s defence understands that his one year-old son constantly having to travel to Soto del Real prison in Madrid affects the child because the prison has physical and emotional effects for children and is located 700 km from the family home.