MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th May, 2019) The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has asked the authorities in Madrid to release from jail a Catalan politician and two activists, who are facing trial over their role in the Catalan independence referendum of 2017.
According to a group's report, released on Wednesday, the three Catalans, namely the Catalan regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, and political activists Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, were arbitrarily detained after the referendum in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The working group considers that the Spanish government must immediately release the detainees, pay compensation to them and properly investigate their detentions.
In October 2017, the Catalan autonomous region voted in a referendum to secede from Spain. The regional government later proclaimed Catalonia's independence, but the Spanish government refused to accept the outcome of the vote and went on to prosecute those who helped organize the vote.
The Spanish government is investigating 12 Catalans, including the three mentioned above, to determine their involvement in the independence referendum, which Madrid did not give permission to hold. The last hearing is expected to take place on June 12, after which the court will have to make a decision.
The Spanish government has already dismissed the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, saying that the experts failed to take into account the crimes said to have been committed as well as the fact that the referendum was unconstitutional.
