Unjustifiable arrests spiral

Six­teen peo­ple were ar­rested yes­ter­day by the Na­tional Po­lice in the Girona re­gion, in­clud­ing two elected may­ors af­fil­i­ated to the CUP party: Ig­nasi Sabater and Dani Cor­nellà. Many of the de­tainees were stopped by hooded agents on their way to work and no-one was in­formed of what they were ac­cused of until they were in­side the Girona po­lice sta­tion. All of them are being in­ves­ti­gated for hav­ing al­legedly par­tic­i­pated in block­ing the high speed train lines in Girona on Oc­to­ber 1 2018 as part of a com­mem­o­ra­tion of the an­niver­sary of the Cata­lan ref­er­en­dum. Yes­ter­day morn­ing the Na­tional Po­lice ar­rested eleven peo­ple, some of whom were in­volved in the CDR (com­mit­tee for the de­fence of the re­pub­lic), the ANC (the Cata­lan na­tional as­sem­bly) and a scout group, and pro-in­de­pen­dence youth groups.. A woman from Girona who was wait­ing to take the train that day was even de­tained. They all wel­comed their right to re­main silent and were re­leased one by one be­tween 12:30 and 14:30. In the af­ter­noon five more peo­ple were de­tained, who have since been re­leased, in­clud­ing a pho­to­jour­nal­ist who had been cov­er­ing the morn­ing’s ar­rests and ac­tivists from a pro-in­de­pen­dence youth group and a Cata­lan stu­dents union (SEPC).

Uni­ver­sity of Girona stu­dents were among those ar­rested yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. Some stu­dents, who had been in­formed by their par­ents that the po­lice were look­ing for them, de­cided to stay on cam­pus rather than go home. Two of their class­mates were ar­rested on their way to the uni­ver­sity to seek refuge. In­side the fac­ulty dozens of stu­dents came to­gether to guard their peers, who de­cided to sleep at the arts fac­ulty last night.

Some of those ar­rested said they didnt’t take part in block­ing the train tracks. In­deed the Mayor of Verges stated that he was at the school where he works that day, and there are there­fore wit­nesses who will be able to con­firm that he was not in Girona.