Human rights organizations claim to go as "observers" to the trial of the 'procés'

Fernando J. Pérez

 

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Spanish and international experts will issue weekly reports on the development of the oral hearings

A platform formed by various entities for the defense of human and civil rights in Catalonia has called on the Supreme Court to reserve five seats in the room where the procés trial will be held to host a series of national and international "observers" who intend to control the guarantees of the trial and its possible impact on fundamental rights. The promoting entities will not supervise the trial themselves, but, they say, have united to "manage and facilitate" the presence in the courtroom of expert jurists and different "independent" organizations that will supervise the trial and prepare reports on their development. .

The high court is expected to reject their claim that a space be allocated to them, according to judicial sources. However, the observers may access the trial whenever there is capacity in the room, because, like all the trials in Spain, it will be held with open doors. The oral hearing will be broadcasted entirely on television, and more than 500 journalists have been accredited to follow the trial, which will start in the coming weeks.

The promoters have presented the "observation scheme" on Tuesday in Madrid as a "normal and usual activity". The activity will be financed "exclusively" by individual contributions on the website, according to Anaïs Franquesa, co-director of the platform, who did not specify how many funds they have, although she pointed out that observers will not charge "fees" for their work.

Robert Sabata, president of the Association of European Democratic Lawyers (AED) has rejected that the initiative implies casting any kind of doubt on the work of the magistrates - "It is not a mistrust towards the Supreme Court; nobody should doubt about it" - and has avoided the parallelisms with other countries subjected to observation such as Turkey, Morocco or Mexico. Sabata has ensured that other Western judicial systems such as Swiss, Italian or French have also been examined by observers.

However, the mistrust about the possibility that the twelve independence leaders led by Oriol Junqueras and accused of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement might have an unfair trial did flow over the press conference. "Given the distrust and suspicion generated by this judicial case, it is healthy and hygienic that there are international experts, renowned jurists and experts in human rights to make reports (...). This should not provoke resentment nor distrust to any state power," said Alejandro Gámez, of the Free Association of Lawyers (ALA), one of the promoters of the platform.

Anaïs Franquesa explained that the task of observation will be carried out in working groups. On the one hand, a group of about 15 academics, coordinated by Iñaki Rivera, professor of Criminal Law at the University of Barcelona and Mercè Barceló, professor of Constitutional Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​will make a report on the guarantees of the trial and the violations of the rights of assembly, demonstration, expression and political participation that it might entail, in their view.

In parallel, the international organizations convened by the platform will draft their own study, albeit independently. Among the entities cited are the American Bar Association, which groups 410,000 American lawyers or the International Federation of Human Rights, with associations from 112 countries.

Also included in the list are the Front Line Defenders (Ireland), Fair Trials (United Kingdom), the European Democratic Lawyers Association (AED) and the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH), Antigone (Italy), the Committee of Jurists for Human Rights (Holland), the Center for Legal and Social Studies (Argentina) and the Maghreb Confederation of Organizations for Human Rights (CMODH).

"These are organizations that have never positioned themselves about the right to decide or independence," said Sabata; but "they have seen that there were many leaks to the media in this judicial case", like the statements of charges that, as indicated, have been provided "firstly to the press rather than to the defenses". For all this, he assured that it is "necessary" that these "international observers" attend the trial sessions as a "matter of democratic hygiene".

https://elpais.com/politica/2019/01/29/actualidad/1548769494_981647.html