Catalan Minister Jordi Turull has been transferred to Lledoners infirmary for his state of health this afternoon. Turull and two other Catalan Members of the Government as well as a peaceful grasssroots activists are in a hunger strike since December 1st. The reason for the strike is this: to denounce a blocking strategy by
Spain's Constitutional Court, which has stalled all their appeals, thus
obstructing access to the European Court of the Human Rights, where
they cannot present a case until the highest Spanish court has spoken on
the issue. The objective of the Spanish state, claim the prisoners, is
to delay these procedures, to ensure that by the time international
court decisions arrive in support of the independence movement, the
prisoners will already be on the street, as has just happened in the
case of Basque politician Arnaldo Otegi. “The impact that they want to avoid is to find themselves forced to open prison doors”, concludes Sànchez.
They are aware that everything is also being thought through at the Constitutional Court, that there is a judge behind it, Cándido Conde Pumpido, who is coordinating all the rulings on the process at the court, which are formally admitted but not resolved. They just get blocked. This is not new. There are appeals from Basque political party Bildu which the court has managed to keep hidden for seven years in some "drawer".It is against this strategy of delay that they are acting. They want to denounce that the same system of control by political parties which has tarnished Spain's General Council of the Judiciary to the point where it has broken down, is also at work in the Constitutional Court. “We want people to talk about this, we want people to be aware of what the Constitutional Court is doing, just as we have seen what is happening in the Council of the Judiciary”, he remarks.
A voice over the loudspeaker warns that only five minutes of visiting time are left. And the final words are forced out roughly while the short time remaining is used up.
Jordi Sànchez confesses that he is preparing himself to spend his second Christmas in prison and without trial. Far away from his family. In fact, it is his family that is more worried about him at present, in the face of this new decision. Christmas with a hunger strike.
The time has run out and we have to leave. In the visiting booths, nine impossible farewells are performed.
Leaving the prison, the fog has gone and the clouds have vanished. We, the group of prison visitors who previously gathered at the penitentiary entrance, now make our way out again through the same corridors, crossing a courtyard. Without a sound. The baby has fallen asleep in its mother's arms. The sun is out. But the cold continues.
They are aware that everything is also being thought through at the Constitutional Court, that there is a judge behind it, Cándido Conde Pumpido, who is coordinating all the rulings on the process at the court, which are formally admitted but not resolved. They just get blocked. This is not new. There are appeals from Basque political party Bildu which the court has managed to keep hidden for seven years in some "drawer".It is against this strategy of delay that they are acting. They want to denounce that the same system of control by political parties which has tarnished Spain's General Council of the Judiciary to the point where it has broken down, is also at work in the Constitutional Court. “We want people to talk about this, we want people to be aware of what the Constitutional Court is doing, just as we have seen what is happening in the Council of the Judiciary”, he remarks.
A voice over the loudspeaker warns that only five minutes of visiting time are left. And the final words are forced out roughly while the short time remaining is used up.
Jordi Sànchez confesses that he is preparing himself to spend his second Christmas in prison and without trial. Far away from his family. In fact, it is his family that is more worried about him at present, in the face of this new decision. Christmas with a hunger strike.
The time has run out and we have to leave. In the visiting booths, nine impossible farewells are performed.
Leaving the prison, the fog has gone and the clouds have vanished. We, the group of prison visitors who previously gathered at the penitentiary entrance, now make our way out again through the same corridors, crossing a courtyard. Without a sound. The baby has fallen asleep in its mother's arms. The sun is out. But the cold continues.
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