Never before had such efforts been made, outside of the independence movement, to bring into political language descriptions which don't belong there, like "brave" and "coward". So, Puigdemont is, for the Spanish PP government, a coward, because he's decided to live in Belgium and hasn't had, they say, the courage to present himself before Spanish justice and go to prison. Likewise for the four ministers with him in exile. The new coward is former CUP deputy Anna Gabriel, with everything suggesting that she plans to move to Switzerland and not attend the Supreme Court to testify this Wednesday as summonsed by Pablo Llarena. "In the Parliament they were very brave, which isn't happening when they have to appear before the courts," said PP deputy Andrea Levy.
It's clear that Levy is more trying to discredit others, rather than praise those who are in prison, the 'Jordis' for over four months now, and Junqueras and Forn since 2nd November last year. Injust pretrial detention without bail which the government of the party she belongs to has irresponsibly forced through and which, maybe, some are now even regretting. Imprisonment which, on the other hand, seems good to her. From Levy's position, it's impossible to accept the idea of the suffering of the supposed cowards and brave people, of their families and their friends.
This Monday, the Martas, Marta Rovira and Marta Pascal, appeared under investigation before the Supreme Court for the legal case into the 1st October referendum. And, in the end, even leaving on bail of 60,000€ (£53,000, $74,000) ends up seeming like a minor sentence. And so the case of rebellion and sedition moves forwards, crimes which are clearly nonexistent, but there they are in court documents. Next will be former president Artur Mas and Neus Lloveras, who this Tuesday will take their turns before the Supreme Court.
And, on Friday, National Audience judge Carmen Lamela has summonsed former major (head) of the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police, Josep Lluís Trapero, for a new charge of sedition. In this case, the National Audience does not have jurisdiction over sedition and it's known that there was no public, tumultuous uprising, as the statute requires. But the accusation Trapero faces is sufficiently serious that the question of him being left free is up in the air.
What is a shame is that people are talking of cowards and brave people when they should be talking about the violation of rights and of fictional narratives which end up with innocent people in prison. But, obviously, this is a delicate area, as was seen with the European Arrest Warrant which the Spanish justice system presented to Belgian justice for the extradition of Puigdemont and the four ministers but which they ended up withdrawing. And we'll see what Spanish justice ends up doing with Swiss justice if Gabriel ends up staying there. So it's easiest to talk about brave people and cowards.