The devastating report from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which calls for the immediate release of Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, is perhaps the greatest blow from an international body the Spanish government has received when it comes to the imprisonment of the Catalan political prisoners. It's not just another working group, nor a low-ranking body, as they suggest from Madrid by putting the article "a" in front of the word "group". It's the group, the only working group in the UN with the power to issue such an order. Nor is it, despite what the Spanish government wants people to think, a UN recommendation, as they're given six months to respond to the request. Otherwise, they risk sanctions for a flagrant breach, as, in their judgement, three irregularities have take place: illegal detention of the political prisoners held in the prisons of Soto del Real and Alcalá Meco, biased judges in the trial in the Supreme Court, and judges who aren't competent to issue a ruling.
The clumsy response from the Spanish government discrediting the UN working group is just another piece of evidence of "snail politics": negative stories are not accepted and associates complete the journey playing them down, blurring the lines or ignoring their results. The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Guardian, to mention just the world's most influential newspapers, covered a headline which the Moncloa government palace was trying to play down. Today, we'll laugh with the print media in the same way it was quite the sight yesterday to follow the clamorous silence of many of Spain's generalist programmes.
That we should learn of this report the same day the public prosecution service and the state's legal service make definitive their conclusions in the trial in the Supreme Court and ask for between 25 and 16 years' imprisonment for the members of the Catalan government in jail is nothing but another demonstration of how the deep state has decided to ignore international institutions and international public opinion, however important it may be, and stick to its only possible argument: to apply a devastating sentence come hell or high water as a lesson for the independence movement. And it adds a final, important postscript to its filing. To the prison sentences, requests modified in no way whatsoever with respect to their filings at the start of the trial, they call on a specific article of the Penal Code to prevent them enjoying "third degree" status, at least until they've served 50% of whatever sentence the Supreme Court may end up imposing on them. Which in the case of Junqueras would be 12 and a half years, during which he wouldn't have access to an open regime, of semi-freedom.
That this increased punishment, thought of in case Catalan prison authorities might accelerate their third degree status, is brought about under an attorney general nominated by the PSOE government and after the elections are over is, at least, a reason for reflection and something more than a warning. As it is that the illustrious president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, should use the chamber's services to prevent president Puigdemont and Toni Comín entering as MEPs-elect. Tajani has taken a decision with absolutely no legal basis, but it's already sparked off a complex legal battle which the pro-independence MEPs trust will conclude with them obtaining their credentials in full.