Suspicious detentions

The arrests of 16 people, including two Mayors, in Girona province on Wednesday by Spanish National Police, with regards to the blocking of high-speed rail tracks last October 1st, were “part of an operation ordered by a judge and coordinated by a prosecutor.” This is the claim from the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, which flies in the face of the statement issued by the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) on Wednesday, which stated that the police actions had nothing to do with the judge of the court of instruction number 4 in Girona, who was the one on duty, the day the occupation of the tracks took place.

The minister, twice questioned during appearances in the Canary Islands, asserted that the “functioning of the Rule of Law” was being called into question unnecessarily, that the Spanish state has “very clear separation of powers” and that the agents of the security forces “collaborate and comply with the guidelines of the judiciary”. Grande-Marlaska insisted that a judge from Girona opened these proceedings as a result of “sabotage” of the high-speed train. In response to the discrepancy between the two statements, the Generalitat announced that it would be filing a complaint for “unlawful detention” based on police action without judicial authorization, pursuant to article 167 of the Penal Code. The lawyer for the detainees, Benet Salellas, denounced the “illegal, illegitimate, arbitrary and unjustified” detentions, saying they were undertaken without judicial order, and in a manner that would normally applied to people who were dangerous, or a flight risk.