“I don’t expect a fair trial”
Interviewed on hunger strike: “The Constitutional Tribunal values the unity of the Spanish nation state above the fundamental rights of its citizens”
Today is Josep Rull’s seventh day of hunger strike, and the 294th day he has spent in prison. This past friday, the ex-counselor from the Generalitat shared his thoughts and feelings with us.
How is your health?
Reasonably good. It is very much as doctors told me it would be, and I have access to daily check-ups.
How do you feel about the reactions you are getting?
Our main objective is to shake up people’s consciences, and draw attention to the deliberate legal moves by the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal to block our acess to the European Court of Justice. The responses from within Catalonia and internationally have been far greater than we could have hoped for, already.
How is the TC blocking you?
They are acting against their own protocol. When appeals are brought to them, in a case of someone being on remand, their protocol says they must act within 30 days. They have chose to ignore their own rules, and six appeals from our legal teams. We cannot go to Strasbourg until they respond.
How did you feel reading the pre-trial writs against you?
If I had any doubt I was a political prisoner, this was quashed when I read them. They’re political accusations, without a shadow of proof, to support charges of rebellion and sedition, which in the penal code must include violence. It’s delirium.
What do you expect of the trial?
I don’t expect a fair trial. The judicial process so far points to an attempt to scapegoat Catalan politicians and put fear into honest Catalans who came out in huge numbers to vote on self-determination last year.