Press release Catalonian Government/UN | July, 5th 2019
Catalonia’s FA Minister, Alfred Bosch, agrees with the statement and insists that “rulings by international bodies have to be respected and human rights fulfilled”
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (WGAD) calls for the immediate release of four of the Catalan political prisoners currently in preventive prison waiting to be sentenced. The group qualifies the detention of Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva, Josep Rull, and Dolors Bassa, all former ministers of the Catalan government, as arbitrary and also asks Spain to compensate for the time spent in preventive detention.
Moreover, the UN organisation demands that an independent and comprehensive investigation on the rights’ violations is carried out. The UN working group also asks the Government of Spain to “adopt the necessary measures in order to solve the situation without delay and according to relevant international standards”.
The Catalan Minister for Foreign Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Alfred Bosch, once again firmly demands that the Spanish authorities “comply with the UN Working Group’s decision by releasing the political prisoners immediately.” “Rulings by international bodies have to be respected and human rights fulfilled,” he says.
It is not the first time, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions issues an official statement on the matter. In May, they asked for the release and compensation for three other incarcerated Catalan leaders, civil society leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez and former Vice-president Oriol Junqueras. The former members of Catalonia’s government, who were now included in the ruling, had spent exactly 500 days in preventive detention when the working group issued the statement. In the case of both Junqueras and Forn they have been incarcerated for more than 20 months without a condemnatory sentence.
