MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2020) The assessment boards of three Spanish jails, where Catalan separatist leaders are serving their sentences for organizing an illegal independence referendum, are ready to grant them greater freedoms and let them go home on weekends, Amand Caldero, secretary general of criminal measures at the Catalan justice department, said on Thursday.
"Prison authorities support introducing a level three [prison] regime in all cases," Caldero said during a press conference.
Level three means that inmates can spend weekends at home but need to sleep in jails from Monday to Thursday. The jailed separatist leaders have been allowed to leave prisons during weekdays for work for three months.
The proposal now requires the approval of the Secretariat of Criminal Measures but can be appealed by the prosecutor's office in court.
In 2017, Catalonia held a referendum in which over 90 percent of voters supported the region's independence from Spain. Madrid declared the referendum illegal and arrested a number of pro-independence leaders. The Supreme Court of Spain has sentenced nine pro-independence Catalan leaders to between 9 and 13 years in prison on sedition charges, while three other officials were ordered to pay fines over disobedience.
