Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has expressed his solidarity with the Catalan political prisoners as their trial in Madrid begins today.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday seven Catalan politicians and two civil society activists go on trial\u00a0in Madrid on politically motivated charges. Those on trial include the former Vice-President of Catalonia, former Ministers, and the former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have written to the nine Catalan political prisoners and expressed my solidarity and that of my colleagues in Sinn F\u00e9in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two civil society leaders have been held in preventive detention awaiting trial since 16 October 2017. The former Vice-President of Catalonia and the former Interior Minister have been held in preventive detention awaiting trial since 2nd November 2017. The other four former Catalan Ministers and the Speaker have been held in preventive detention awaiting trial since 23 March 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have all been accused of the crimes of sedition and rebellion, which potentially carry prison sentences of up to thirty years, over their alleged roles in the 1 October 2017 Catalan independence referendum. To have organised or supported a referendum on self-determination, in line with the democratic mandate given to them by the Catalan people is in my opinion not\u00a0a crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike many others, I have been appalled at the approach and provocative actions of the Spanish authorities. This is a political issue, not a legal one, and it should be solved outside the arena of courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe democratic solution would be for the Spanish Government\u00a0to enter into meaningful dialogue with the Catalan Government to find a political solution to their legitimate demands. It also needs to stop using the police and the legal system to attack the Catalan independence movement, which is a legitimate political demand.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has expressed his solidarity with the Catalan political prisoners as their trial in Madrid begins today. Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said: \u201cToday seven Catalan politicians and two civil society activists go on trial\u00a0in Madrid on politically motivated charges. Those on trial include the former Vice-President of Catalonia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catalonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3718,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions\/3718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}