The former speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, for whom public prosecutors are asking for 17 years in prison on a charge of rebellion, has this Saturday marked 500 nights of provisional detention in different prisons, since 10th November 2017, first at the initiative of the investigating judge from the Supreme Court Pablo Llarena and now by decision of the presiding judge of the chamber which has tried them, Manuel Marchena. Forcadell, a cultural activist and president of the ANC between 2012 and 2015, led the way in that pro-sovereignty body, so much so she made the jump to being speaker of the Catalan legislative chamber.
As an organiser of the first four large-scale pro-independence demonstrations, she's been a political figure pursued from the very beginning by the deep state which explains the gravity of the prosecutors' accusation and the fact that, despite the Parliament's Board being a collegial body, the speaker's case should have remained in the Supreme Court whilst that against the other five pro-independence members should have moved to the High Court of Justice of Catalonia with the charge reduced to disobedience.
The case of Forcadell, like that of the two Jordis -Cuixart and Sànchez, who have spent 657 days in prison-, is particularly remarkable in dealing with charges that are so serious relating to when she was the speaker of a legislative chamber. That has earned her the support of more than 500 MPs and former MPs from 25 countries, who signed a manifesto last December calling for her immediate release and criticising her imprisonment "for allowing a debate" in a parliament. Forcadell disregarded reports from the chamber's lawyers, which weren't binding, believing that she shouldn't nor could she exercise any pressure on parliamentary activity. Speakers from other European regional parliaments have agreed with her, as have numerous MEPs, based on the principles which govern parliamentary democracies and freedom of speech.
Her words in her final statement in the Supreme Court on 12th June echo today with the same force as they did that day in Madrid: "I'm being tried for being who I am, for my political career, not for my actions, not for my deeds". There's been an effort to incriminate her, even with accusations during the trial which were false. But nothing has given her her freedom back.