Observers to attend trial
New platform called “International Trial Watch - Catalan Referendum Case” has been launched to monitor the Catalan Referendum trial.
A group of Catalan organizations defending the rights and freedoms of citizens launched the International Trial Watch - Catalan Referendum Case platform yesterday. This platform hopes to organize the presence of national and international observers during the trial of supporters of Catalan independence at the supreme court. The names of the different people and organizations to participate have not been released, but apparently people are expected “from the Mediterranean, Europe and Latin America”. The platform also called for donations to make monitoring the trial possible.
The organizations promoting the platform are: Novact, the Catalan Association for the Defense of Human Rights, the Institute of Human Rights of Catalonia, the Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights of the University of Barcelona, the Col·lectiu Praga and the Irídia Center for the Defense of Human Rights. Their website (available at www.internacionlatrialwacht.org) contains files relating to the case, including the document accusing nine political prisoners of the crime of rebellion, and six more for the embezzlement of public funds and disobedience.
Criminal lawyer Anaïs Franquesa said the platform has three branches: the first involves about twenty academics from all over Spain who are to produce a report on procedural rights and the non-existence of the crime of rebellion; the second involves human rights defenders who are to analyze whether civil and political rights violations are taking place; the third group is made up of lawyers who will be monitoring the trial throughout.