Catalan Independence Activists are released from Prison after obtaining Semi-Freedom

Barcelona (Spain)- The seven Catalan independence prisoners, convicted of a crime of sedition, left the prison where they are serving their sentence this Friday, after the Catalan Government granted them semi-freedom, coinciding with the beginning of the electoral campaign for the regional elections of Catalonia.

They were released from prison this Thursday after the Catalan Executive, which has powers over prisons, granted them what in Spanish law is called the “third degree”, which means that they only have to spend the night in jail Monday to Thursday.

This measure can be appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office, which can request that they return to prison until the Supreme Court decides, which is the one that has the last word in the prison classifications as the sentencing court, as happened last December.

Meanwhile, as the prisoners maintain their right to political participation, they will be able to participate in the electoral campaign that begins today in view of the regional elections in Catalonia called for next February 14.

This Friday, five former members of the Government that were in Catalonia when the secessionist process took place in 2017 were released from prison: former Vice President Oriol Junqueras, former councilors Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva and Josep Rull, and two social leaders of the separatist movement: Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart.

The seven showed the numerous journalists who were waiting for them at the gates of the prison a banner that read “Amnesty. Let’s go free.”

The former councilor Dolos Bassa also left jail today and the situation of the former president of the Parliament of Catalonia Carme Forcadell is pending resolution.

The nine were sentenced in October 2019 for a crime of sedition to sentences of between 9 and 13 years in prison, for their participation in the illegal independence process of 2017, which included an illegal referendum on secession in Catalonia on October 1, that year and a subsequent unilateral declaration of independence in the Catalan Parliament on the 27th of that same month.