The Catalan Parliament committee of spokepeople has passed, with support from ERC, Junts, the CUP and the Comuns, a statement of its support for the activist Mohammed Said Badaoui, who was arrested this Tuesday over an order of expulsion from Spain, pending since the summer. Badaoui has lived in the Catalan city of Reus for more than 30 years. The National Police started the process to deport him from the country because the Spanish intelligence services consider him a "threat to national security". The text passed by Catalan MPs asserts that Badaoui's case is one of "political repression and Islamophobia by the Spanish state, this time through the Ley de Extranjería" - that is, the Foreigners Act.
The parliamentary parties that approved the text are critical that no judicial procedure has been opened to present and evaluate the evidence behind the suspicions and, therefore, he is accused without evidence, but according to "suppositions". They state that his fundamental rights have been violated. Specifically, they indicate that several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been violated because he has been condemned without a public trial, an attack has been committed against his reputation and honour and his right to choose his place of residence has been violated.
Need to safeguard the rights of foreigners
The groups that have passed the initiative criticized the Spanish state's Foreigners Act and its "opaque procedures" and urged the Spanish government to "activate all administrative, legal and diplomatic tools" to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of those affected by this law. In addition, they reiterated the need to repeal the Ley de Extranjería, as Parliament has already asserted in several resolutions. The text argues that the case of Mohammed Said Badaoui is an irregular deportation procedure in which he has been accused of religious extremism without this being based on any demonstrable facts. In addition, the text maintains that the aim of this case is to "keep migrant people, especially Muslims, from living their lives to the fullest" and engaging in social and cultural activities, and warns of the grave repercussions that the expulsion of an ordinary resident of Catalonia in these circumstances could produce.
Condemnation of Turkey's military operations
During the plenary session in the Catalan Parliament this Wednesday, a second statement by the committee of spokepeople was also read, to condemn Turkey's military operations in the territory of northern and eastern Syria. In this statement, Junts, the CUP, ERC and the Comuns, condemned the attacks and requested that Turkey stop any planned military operation. They also called on the Spanish government to stop the supply of military equipment to Turkey and to "immediately" withdraw its soldiers and anti-aircraft missile battery from the city of Adana. The statement thus called on all governments and international organizations, including the UN, NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe and the Arab League, to take urgent action against the violations of international law and the "killings".