Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has\ncondemned the Spanish Supreme Court\u2019s decision to sentence 9 Catalan political\nleaders to between 9 and 13 years in prison over their alleged roles in the 1\nOctober 2017 Catalan independence referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am absolutely outraged at the jailing of these 9 Catalan political and civil society leaders. I want to send my solidarity to each one of them and their families at this extremely emotional and difficult time.<\/p>
\u201cThe jailing of these political prisoners is an affront to democratic values and should be of huge concern to democrats and all\u00a0those who believe in freedom of expression around the world.<\/p>
\u201cOn 1 October 2017 millions of Catalans came out to vote and to democratically decide on their future. It should have been an expression and a triumph for democracy, no matter what the outcome.<\/p>
\u201cSadly, the world witnessed through social media\u00a0and other media outlets the horrific and shocking scenes of Spanish police brutality in various parts of Catalonia that day. Peaceful citizens who were protecting the integrity of polling stations were struck down and beaten by elements of the Spanish police.<\/p>
\u201cThese political and civil society leaders should not have been facing charges for their alleged role in establishing and running that referendum. Facilitating people to vote should not be\u00a0a crime, but preventing them by force should be.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom the beginning of this process I have called for dialogue between the Spanish and Catalan authorities, for the 9 political and civic society leaders\u00a0to be released from their pre-trial detention, and for the politically motivated\u00a0charges against them to be dropped. <\/p>
\u201cIn March this year I travelled to Madrid for two days and attended the trial of the Catalan political prisoners. Sadly\u00a0it had all the trappings of a political show\u00a0trial.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cI have continued to correspond with the political prisoners and extend Sinn F\u00e9in’s solidarity with them on their long detention.<\/p>
\u201cThis should be a political issue, not the dubious\u00a0legal one that it has become.\u00a0The Spanish Government needs to stop using the police and the legal system to attack and undermine\u00a0the Catalan independence movement, which is a legitimate political movement.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cThe political way forward has to involve meaningful dialogue and engagement, not the suppression and arbitrary\u00a0jailing of political and social leaders.<\/p>
\u201cFor democrats this has to be one of the most pressing political issues in Europe. We cannot ignore or dismiss\u00a0this latest development and the central issue of citizens being prosecuted for pursing purely\u00a0peaceful and democratic means in defence of self-determination.<\/p>
\u201cI will be urgently raising this issue in the D\u00e1il\u00a0and calling on the Irish government to speak out and to condemn this outrageous decision.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has condemned the Spanish Supreme Court\u2019s decision to sentence 9 Catalan political leaders to between 9 and 13 years in prison over their alleged roles in the 1 October 2017 Catalan independence referendum. Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said: \u201cI am absolutely outraged at the jailing of these 9 […]<\/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-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catalonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","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=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3961,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/3961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}