Ministers claim mistreatment

Andreu van den Eynde, the lawyer of the three ERC ministers confined in the prison of Estremera, Oriol Junqueras, Charles Mundó and Raül Romeva, announced after visiting them yesterday, that he will file a complaint regarding the conditions in which they were transferred on Thursday night from thecourt in Madrid to the prison.

Junqueras, Mundó Romeva and spent the first night in a Madrid jail with the JxS ministers Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull, coalition partners from PDeCAT. Meritxell Borràs also from PDeCAT and Dolors Bassa, ERC spent their first night incarcerated in Alcala-Meco.

Van den Eynde said that the conditions of the transfer were not “correct”, but did not specify the terms under which the three may have suffered mistreatment. “This is something for them to explain and we cannot make the mistake of advancing anything until we have lodged the complaint […] but yes, brave people were being transferred, who will also have the courage to say what happened,” he said. He also pointed out that in such a transfer there is “quite a lot of leeway and occasion for impunity for behaviours or mistreatment of detainees and prisoners.”

The allegations of mistreatment in the transfer coincide with the publication by the newspaper La Vanguardia of a video where three Spanish police officers are seen mocking Oriol Junqueras when was transferred to the prison. The Directorate General of Police said yesterday that an investigation of these events is underway.

Van den Eynde said his clients were “well and calm” despite the circumstances and that he felt the presence of Carles Puigdemont in Belgium had not influenced the judge’s decision to imprison them.