Catalonia's Puigdemont calls prison sentences for separatist leaders "repression and revenge"

Record ID: 1436615

  • Title: Catalonia's Puigdemont calls prison sentences for separatist leaders "repression and revenge"
  • Date: 14th October 2019
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER PRESIDENT OF CATALONIA, CARLES PUIGDEMONT, SAYING: "No propaganda strategy in the world could mask so much shameful injustice. The great decision of the Spanish justice system marks the dawn of a new era in which exercising fundamental rights and freedoms will be restricted to all citizens. And the legitimate option of pursuing independence through any democratic channels will be persecuted under suspicion of sedition." PEOPLE LISTENING TO PUIGDEMONT, INCLUDING HIS BELGIAN LAWYER PAUL BEKAERT (LEFT) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER PRESIDENT OF CATALONIA, CARLES PUIGDEMONT, SAYING: "Their silence contributes towards the irreversible erosion of a Spanish democracy. The Europe that says nothing in the face of the Turkish atrocities against the Kurds, is the same Europe that cowardly kept quiet when the police in a member state used terrifying violence as they attacked people going to vote." PUIGDEMONT LEAVING AFTER HAVING DELIVERED HIS STATEMENTS PUIGDEMONT LEAVING BUILDING PROTESTERS WITH BLACK TAPE ON THEIR MOUTH HOLDING SIGNS OUTSIDE BUILDING, READING (English): "Spanish justice is the shame of Europe" and "Spain is a fascist state" SIGN READING (English): "Spanish Justice is the shame of Europe" PROTESTER WITH TAPED MOUTH PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS JOURNALISTS AND PROTESTERS OUTSIDE BUILDING, ONE PROTESTER HOLDING A SPANISH FLAG AND ONE HOLDING A CATALAN FLAG PROTESTERS WRAPPED IN CATALAN FLAGS SINGING IN FRONT OF THE SPANISH EMBASSY
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2019 17:01
  • Keywords: Catalan Carles Puigdemont Brussels Spain Catalonia Supreme Court jail sentences
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA003B12MAFB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The former head of Catalonia's regional government Carles Puigdemont said on Monday (October 14) that the prison sentences for the separatist leaders on trial for a failed 2017 independence bid showed a "strategy of repression and revenge."
    Puigdemont was speaking after Spain's Supreme Court jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders for between nine and 13 years for their role in a failed independence bid, a decision that triggered protests in the region and left the future course of the dispute uncertain.
    The court also issued a European arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont, who was regional leader during its independence bid. He now lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium. In July 2018, the Spanish court dropped a warrant after Germany refused to extradite him.
    The ex-leader of the region did not take questions after delivering his statements on the prison sentences and did not comment on the extradition request.
    A handful of protesters were waiving signs reading "Spanish justice is the shame of Europe" and "Spain is a fascist state", while a man was holding a Spanish flag.
    In another area of Brussels, another small group of protesters wrapped in Catalan flags gathered outside the Spanish embassy, singing Catalan songs.
    (Production: Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf, Bart Biesemans, Hortense de Roffignac)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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