Former Catalan National Assembly president Jordi Sànchez has sent an emotional message from Soto del Real prison near Madrid as he marks 4 months held in pretrial detention. The letter will be read at an event for the pro-independence political prisoners in Barcelona this evening.
In the letter, which El Nacional has seen, Sànchez expresses his longing to see his children Oriol, Clara and Abril again, calls for the unity of the independence movement to be maintained and for the Catalan government to be recovered to make article 155 "disappear".
The full text from Jordi Sànchez reads:
Recently there has been little I want more than to feel the sea again and to walk on the beach which, between Pals and Begur, has seen Oriol, Clara and Abril grow up, and so many times play at challenging the waves.
I know I'll go back there, that we'll go back there together but the impatience is overwhelming me.
The same impatience I have for the unity between independence supporters to be preserved, to recover the government and normality and for [article] 155 to disappear.
I know I will do it, and that we will preserve the value of the unity and the mandate of the ballot boxes, but the impatience is overwhelming me.
Exactly the same impatience I have to be able to continue moving forwards alongside so, so many people to make a prosperous country a reality, nationally free, socially fair and profoundly democratic, where nobody feels persecuted for their ideas. I know that we will build this country and that we will pass it on to our children and our children's children, but the impatience is overwhelming me.
Thanks for not forgetting us!
Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol
16th February 2018, Soto del Real