As different aspects related to the detentions and imprisonment of the seven CDR members are coming to light via leaks to different media outlets (by the way, where is the National Audience's ruling? Why hasn't it been made public and instead self-interested leaks are coming out?), it's starting to be possible to piece together the puzzle of the scheme orchestrated to criminalise the independence movement and link it with that which is already openly defined on the front pages of the Madrid press as "the Catalan batasuna1".
A group detained by the Civil Guard on Monday who were found, according to the press release, to have "substances considered to be precursors for the manufacturing of explosives", became, in the ruling from judge Manuel García Castellón, sent by the National Audience itself, "belonging to terrorist organization, manufacture and possession of explosives and conspiracy to cause havoc." "There is evidence that the seven arrested are part of ERT ["Tactical Response Teams"], an organization with a hierarchical structure that aims to establish the Catalan Republic by any means, including violent ones."
The narrative was created, but there was another objective that has been being worked on through the media since the first day: to reach the exiles, to create a link between the detainees and the exile of the political prisoners. First to appear on the media scene of this whole story was president Quim Torra on Saturday, who, ABC said, was going to help the CDR [Committees for Defence of the Republic] to take the Catalan Parliament. This Sunday, this time via Cadena Ser, it was alleged that the detained CDR members had acted as a link between Puigdemont and Torra for the exchange of "secret and sensitive documentation". This has a hint of the grotesque about it since they meet regularly, at least once or twice a month, and members of the government and pro-independence leaders are constantly travelling between Waterloo and Barcelona. It does not seem, therefore, that an external link would be needed.
But it is necessary to place president Puigdemont, and we'll see, maybe others of those in exile, at the heart of this supposed Catalan terrorist organization that the Spanish justice system is hoping to bring to light. With the imminence of the Supreme Court's sentences against the Catalan political prisoners and the foreseeable request of new European Arrest Warrants for the exiled political prisoners in Brussels (Puigdemont, Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig), Geneva (Marta Rovira and Anna Gabriel) and Edinburgh (Clara Ponsatí), and in view of the fact that the justice systems of Germany and Belgium have already opposed their extradition for rebellion, someone may have prepared a new argument: links to a terrorist organization.
This may be the legal battle of the coming months while the political situation is growing more tense thanks to the sentences. The second anniversary of 1st October 2017 has multiple public events organised and the acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, came to Gavà to declare that the the Spanish state is prepared to act with determination in the face of any contempt of the Spanish Constitution or of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy.
Translator's note:
1. Batasuna was a Basque nationalist party that was banned in Spain when a court declared it to be linked to ETA.