Spain Wants To Jail All Catalan Separatists To Stifle Media Interest In Cause- EU Lawmaker

Madrid wants to jail all Catalan separatists to kill media interest in their cause, Josep-Maria Terricabras, a Catalan and a vice-chair of the Greens/EFA political group in the European parliament, told Sputnik

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2019) Madrid wants to jail all Catalan separatists to kill media interest in their cause, Josep-Maria Terricabras, a Catalan and a vice-chair of the Greens/EFA political group in the European parliament, told Sputnik.

Terricabras attended the Supreme Court trial of Catalan independence leaders on Thursday and Friday in Madrid with a group of European Parliament members. The 12 separatist leaders are on trial over their involvement in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, deemed illegal by Madrid, and subsequent unilateral declaration of independence.

"You must understand that if the Spanish government gets its way and that all our Catalan separatist leaders are imprisoned, our cause would be finished. Spain wants to kill the media interest for our cause. If all were in prison, we would lose our passionate defense," Terricabras said.

The member of the European parliament added that former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was right to leave Spain in October 2017, after Madrid imposed direct rule over Catalonia and dissolved the parliament.

"Each minister in the Catalan government decided personally to go or to stay, they did it in good intelligence. Some, whose parents are very old, decided to stay, others like Puigdemont decided to escape and bring the fight for independence to the international level. He was right to do it. Half left, half stayed," Terricabras said.

The politician said he believed that Spanish judges would "penalize heavily" the Catalan independence leaders, but then show slight leniency to appear "extremely generous." Terricabras expressed hope that Madrid would be influenced by the international pressure.