• Justice: The Constitutional Court refuses to suspend the sentences of the leaders of the 'procés'

Former officials of the Govern, the Parliament and independence entities convicted of sedition by the Supreme Court could step on the prison only to sleep and from Monday to Friday. The treatment boards of the prisons in which Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Cuixart, Dolors Bassa and Carme Forcadell have unanimously decided to propose to the Secretary for Criminal Measures and Alternatives from the Department of Justice of the Generalitat that grants the third degree to inmates. In this way, they will leave an open center close to their home every day to carry out the work or volunteer work they already do due to the application of the 100.2 of the prison regulations and at the end of the day they will return to prison.

The only difference for practical purposes with their current situation is that weekends will be spent at home and not in prison as until now, when they are classified in a second degree but with the semi-freedom of article 100.2 to go out to carry out activities, work or volunteering, that allow their social reintegration. Another substantial change is that any appeal to a third degree, which must be granted by the Department of Justice of the Generalitat at the request of the boards, must be appealed, in second instance, before the court that sentenced the prisoners, in this case the Supreme. Predictably, the Fscalía could oppose the measure and the chamber could annul the classification, taking into account that about 10 months have passed since the sentence. Justícia, controlled by ERC, has a maximum of two months to decide whether or not to accept the third degree of sovereign leaders, although the decision will come in a few weeks and its application will be immediate.

The secretary of Mesures Penals, Reinserció i Atenció a la Víctima, Amand Calderó, explained that the decision of the boards must endorse it or make a counterproposal to the Generalitat in a maximum of two months. In case of maintaining the change in the application of the prison degree, he assured that he can be appealed to the prison surveillance court and, the judicial decision, to the sentencing court, in this case the Supreme Court. Calderó assured that the treatment boards of the jails in which the 9 sovereign prisoners are held have been simultaneous to avoid "threats and coercion" and sent a message to JxCat members assuring that "the execution of the sentence is not on the table of any president or of any advisers, if they depended on the Generalitat they would not have entered prison. No personal conviction of the president or any conseller can change the sentence. "

For this reason, the secretary claims that the decisions of the boards are not used "as weapons thrown" for political reasons because if someone does it, he incurs "serious irresponsibility". "It is easier to attack Generalitat officials than to discuss the court ruling," said Calderó, who defended the task of the technicians of each center to study the proposal of each inmate based on their conduct at the center, adaptations, the setting, absence of a record, recidivism or part of the sentence served.

Treatment boards must study the situation of prisoners every six months according to the regulations. Last January, at the request of the technicians of each center, the Generalitat cataloged the prisoners in the second degree, which generated a new public confrontation between the ERC and JxCat, the parties that make up the Govern, since the neoconvergents pressed for their apply semi-freedom. In the following months, all the prisoners gradually began to request the application of 100.2, which had the endorsement of the treatment boards.

The norm establishes that the prison surveillance court must validate it since the application of this article of the regulation does not go through the Generalitat. In this way, all the prisoners have been leaving for several hours a day to work or volunteer despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office appealed all these decisions, since it considered that not enough time had passed and that the occupations that the pro-independence leaders, related to jobs in their companies like Cuixart, in legal offices such as Forn, Turull or Rull, in studies and academic research, like Junqueras and Romeva, volunteering like Sànchez or taking care of relatives like Bassa, at first, and Forcadell did not serve for his rehabilitation for the crime of sedition. They were only without leaving, confined like the rest of the population, by the coronavirus pandemic.

Several judges of prison surveillance have endorsed these exits of the inmates as well as the requests for prison permits that Cuixart and Sànchez have already had when serving a quarter of the sentence. The prison technicians have favorable reports of these exits, which has influenced the decision to ask them to grant the third degree of prison. However, prison sources remember that there are many types of semi-freedom, which can even be revoked, since there is one that allows you to go out for a few hours a day, depending on work, volunteering, study or family needs until the application of the article on 86.4 which establishes that inmates sleep in their homes. 85% of Catalan third degree prisoners have benefited from this measure due to the health crisis to prevent the overcrowding of prisons and avoid contagion.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • ERC
  • Supreme court
  • Raül Romeva
  • Oriol Junqueras
  • Josep Rull
  • Jordi Turull
  • Jordi Sànchez
  • Jordi Cuixart
  • Joaquim Forn
  • Dolors Bassa
  • Carme Forcadell
  • Catalonia

See links of interest

  • Last News
  • English translator
  • Programming
  • Catalonia Calendar
  • Work calendar
  • Daily horoscope
  • Santander League Ranking
  • League calendar
  • TV Movies
  • Themes
  • Arsenal - Norwich City
  • Bournemouth - Newcastle United
  • Everton - Leicester City
  • Alavés - Granada CF
  • Valencia CF - Athletic Club