German MP Andrej Hunko has warned the Catalan political prisoners that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is receiving a lot of pressure in relation to the Catalan independence case. He shared this observation with the jailed leaders when he visited some of them in Lledoners prison last Thursday.
In declarations to the German digital magazine Telepolis, the MP for the left-wing Die Linke party in the Bundestag explained that, during his meeting, the pro-independence prisoners conveyed to him their confidence about taking the case to Strasbourg. However, Hunko warned them that he was aware that the court was receiving a lot of pressure on the issue.
The MP considers that the many months of preventive prison they have endured "contradicts the democratic values of the European Union" and has announced that he will take the case to the German parliament. "I will undertake initiatives in Germany to draw attention to what is happening. As a member of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, I want to know that the independence of the upcoming court processes can be guaranteed," he said.
Hunko said that there will be media coverage of the independence trial in Germany because "it is a European matter", while he also called for institutions such as the German government, the EU and the Council of Europe to become involved against the imprisonment of the pro-independence leaders. According to the left-wing MP, they will try to put the Catalonia situation "on the table" at the next session of the Council of Europe, from January 21st to 25th, where "these types of questions on democracy and human rights must be addressed."
Image: ACN
After his visit to Catalonia, the MP says that he felt "very impressed" and had realized that "first and foremost, it is a struggle for democracy." In particular, Hunko told Telepolis that one of the moments that struck him most was the conversation with jailed Catalan foreign minister Raül Romeva, who confessed that all the pro-independence leaders assume that they will be found guilty and that they believe it is about "revenge ". In addition, the MP explained that the imprisoned Catalan vice president, Oriol Junqueras, added that none of them had any faith in the Spanish judiciary. An appeal to the Strasbourg court becomes possible if the normal avenues of recourse in the Spanish judicial system have been exhausted.
Apart from visiting the prisoners at Lledoners, the German politician also met Catalan foreign minister Alfred Bosch and several members of the Parliament of Catalonia.