Former French Minister of Education, Benoît Hamon, calls for the immediate release of Catalan “political prisoners”
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In an event in Paris, Hamon accuses Europe of being unable to manage the Catalan crisis
Former French Minister of Education Benoît Hamon called for “the immediate release of Catalan political prisoners.” In an event organized in Paris on Tuesday by Òmnium Cultural and the French section of the League of Human Rights (LDH), the also former member of the Socialist Party and promoter of the Génération-s movement said he was “deeply shocked by the images of violence against the voters on October 1 “.
The event denounced the grave violation of fundamental rights suffered by the President of Òmnium, Jordi Cuixart, and the rest of the political prisoners. In the case of Cuixart, he is currently in custody for the exercise of his fundamental rights, which are enshrined in several international treaties ratified by Spain.
In the Alfred Dreyfus room of the French League of Human Rights, several political, media and human rights defenders criticized the democratic deficit of the Spanish institutions that keep Cuixart in preventive prison. Everyone agreed on the urgent need to release all political prisoners and guarantee respect for fundamental rights.
French MP Paul Molac claimed that “the right of self-determination of peoples is recognized in international law” and the honorary president of the LDH, Michel Taubina, praised the absence of violence in the demonstrations of the Catalan self-determination movement.
The particular case of Jordi Cuixart was denounced by his lawyer, Olivier Peter, and his wife, Txell Bonet, who said that “to have leaders of civil society, who use their right to protest and freedom of expression, in jail is an attempt to criminalize popular peaceful mobilizations, and we cannot allow this right, and the right to protest of future generations, to be mortgaged”. The president of the French newspaper Mediapart, Edwy Plenel, has denounced the “negative response of Spain to the Catalan demands”
Òmnium Cultural plans to organize these kinds of events in various European capitals throughout the coming months.