CATALAN President Quim Torra was arriving in Edinburgh last night as he prepared to meet First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and former Catalan education minister Professor Clara Ponsati, who is fighting extradition to Spain.
His visit comes after his first meeting with Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, at which he said Catalan self-determination was not up for discussion, and as Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena ordered the suspension from public office of six jailed and exiled pro-independence figures.
They are sacked president Carles Puigdemont, who is in exile in Germany, along with the incarcerated former vice-president Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Jordi Rull, Josep Turull and Jordi Sanchez.
All are elected members of the Catalan Parliament and would have to give up their seats while waiting for a verdict.
Llarena’s decree was immediately criticised by Catalan government spokeswoman, Elsa Artadi, who said it was an attempt to “alter the parliamentary majorities”.
Puigdemont tweeted: “This decision describes the level of democratic quality of the State. The vote of the citizens, damned by a ‘justice’ that continues to make politics. It will be long, but we will win.”
Ponsati, head of the school of economics at St Andrews University, is facing a charge of rebellion should she be extradited. Her meeting with Torra will be in private. Her lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said she “greatly appreciates” Torra’s support, and added: “If extradited Clara Ponsati could face a sentence of up to 33 years in a Spanish prison.
“The Prosecutor from Crown Office acting on behalf of Spain considers an equivalent charge of rebellion can be met in Scotland with a charge of conspiracy to alter the constitution by criminal means and treason.
“Clara refutes the charges and maintains that she peacefully promoted a referendum, whilst the charges against her are ‘politically motivated’ and extradition would be unjust, oppressive and incompatible with her human rights.”
The president’s meeting with Sanchez was productive in that it re-started a dialogue between Madrid and Barcelona, but the Spanish PM refused to recognise that nine jailed pro-independence figures were “political prisoners”. Torra said that while it was a dialogue, “it was not negotiation”. Last week, six of the nine in jail were transferred from Estremera jail in Madrid to Lledoners penitentiary near Barcelona, closer to their families.
Joaquim Forn, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull – the remaining three – are expected to arrive at Lledoners later today, where they will be met by a welcoming party of protesters from the Catalan National Congress (ANC), Omnium Cultural and the Committee for the Defence of the Republic (CDR).
The Catalan Defence Committee (CDC) Scotland, meanwhile, has called for the Scottish and UK governments not to abandon human rights for party interests and to pressure the Spanish Government to endorse a referendum on Catalan independence.
The group said: “The Scottish Government must condemn Spain’s flagrant continued disrespect for democracy.”
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