No end to the repression
The president of the Generalitat is bringing a lawsuit against the JEC and the public prosecutor is accusing him of disobedience
Quim Torra yesterday launched a criminal lawsuit against the Spanish electoral authority (JEC in Spanish) for breaching their official duty in demanding he remove pro Catalan independence flags and yellow ribbons in that these mandates were random, arbitrary and “impossible to fulfill”. Torra warned that he would take the suit wherever he needs to if “Spain does not want to investigate the facts”. Yesterday the prosecutor’s office also launched a criminal lawsuit against the Torra for allegedly having disobeyed the order to remove the ribbons. “There’s no end to the repression” Torra said. The lawsuit put together by lawyers Gonzalo Boye and María Isabel Sánchez condemns the JEC’s attempt to criminalize the president of the Generalitat, their limits on freedom of speech and their unjust persecution of all political initiatives coming from the Generalitat. The JEC is accused of attempting to damage Catalan government institutions and censor everything displayed at the offices of these institutions all over the country.
The lawsuit states that “political persecution” is being carried out “this time, by means of administrative mandates that restrict fundamental rights and are above all about punishment”.
The lawsuit charts how on March 11 the JEC spoke of removing pro-independence flags “or” yellow ribbons, but subsequently, on March 18, replaced “or” with “and”, thus altering the content of the first statement. Torra says that the JEC alter their orders each time he appeals and that this puts him in a situation in which he is unable to defend himself as proscribed.