It rules that Spain “violated the political rights of former members of the Government of Catalonia” by suspending defendants in the “procés” from their functions before they were sentenced in 2019
The UN Human Rights Committee ruled on Wednesday that Spain “violated the political rights of former members of the Government and Parliament of Catalonia” by suspending defendants in the “procés” from their public functions before they were sentenced in 2019, after the 2017 independence referendum.
The ruling confirms a complaint filed in 2018 by the former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras and the former ministers Raül Romeva, Joseph Rull and Jordi Turull, who alleged that the suspension of their functions prior to the existence of a conviction violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The committee emphasizes that the complainants were suspended after being accused of the crime of rebellion (which requires a violent uprising) despite the fact that they had urged the public to remain strictly peaceful and that they were finally convicted in 2019 of sedition, which does not involve the use of violence.
