Former Catalan interior minister Joaquim Forn left Lledoners jail this Thursday morning at 7:30 on his first day of regular work leave. The pro-independence politiican will join the legal department of the large Catalan media company, Mediapro.
In the legal team, Quim Forn will be in charge of the area of public law, his professional specialty, as explained by the director general of the media production firm, Jaume Roures, in a statement to Catalunya Ràdio. The treatment board at Lledoners jail decided last week that Forn could leave the prison five days a week for 12 hours 30 minutes a day.
His daughter was in charge of picking him up on the first day. At about 7:35am she left her car in the parking lot and walked to the jail. Shortly after, she returned accompanied by her father, who greeted the press. His daughter took a photo of Forn with the prison behind him before they hopped into the car and left.
"Just leaving Lledoners jail on the first day of work leave after 841 days deprived of liberty.
Thank you for your support."— Joaquim Forn
Forn is the fourth of the Catalan political prisoners to get permission to leave prison regularly to work. The first was Jordi Cuixart, whose new routine takes him from the prison to the Aranow factory, which he owns.
Carme Forcadell and Dolors Bassa began work leave regimes on February 17th. The former speaker of the Catalan Parliament left the Mas d'Enric prison, near Tarragona, to care for her mother. The permission will allow her to be outside the prison 9 hours a day, including travel, three days a week between Monday and Friday.
Meanwhile, Dolors Bassa left the same day from Puig de les Basses prison in the north of Catalonia to care for an elderly relative. The former labour minister will be outside the centre three days a week, eight hours a day.
"It's not a privilege"
Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont was the first to react to the Twitter message from his former interior minister Forn. Puigdemont insisted that leaving the prison for work "is not a privilege or a reparation of the injustice" he has suffered.
"Dear @quimforn, lots of encouragement and love. It is no privilege nor any reparation for the injustice of which you are a victim; liberty should be the natural circumstance for all of you, good, honourable people committed to peace and democracy."— Carles Puigdemont
Current Catalan president Quim Torra commented that "exercising your rights" does not mean we forget "the great injustice that your imprisonment represents".
"Dear @quimforn, today you leave jail for a few hours to work after 841 days of captivity. Exercising the rights you are entitled to does not make us forget the enormous injustice that your imprisonment represents."— Quim Torra i Pla