Imprisoned Catalan pro-independence politicians Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva will shortly be able to leave prison to go to work, under Article 100.2 of the prison regulations. The prisoner treatment board at Lledoners jail in central Catalonia has this Thursday agreed to grant them on-going permission for six hours of work leave, three days a week.
Junqueras and Romeva thus join Jordi Cuixart and Joaquim Forn, who have begun regular work on similar leave permits in the last two weeks, as well as Jordi Sànchez, who has started volunteer work this week, and Dolors Bassa and Carme Forcadell, who have permission to leave prison several days a weeks to care for elderly relatives.
Thus, of the nine political prisoners, only Jordi Turull and Josep Rull have not yet received approval for leave under article 100.2.
Article 100.2
Last December 11th, the Catalan prisoners received the disappointing news that they had been classified under a standard second-level prison regime, when they had envisaged being granting a more open third-level regime. But even so, the classification opened the way for them to be granted daytime leave from prison.
Article 100.2 can be applied immediately by the prison once the internal board approved the measure. Later, the prison surveillance judge must confirm it, and prosecutors can appeal it, but this does not paralyze the treatment board's decision. Only the Barcelona High Court can rule for the leave to be stopped.
This article can be applied to prisoners with the standard second-level classification, like the nine political prisoners, and it is centred on permission for inmates to leave prison a few hours a week for work, educational or volunteer activities. Under no circumstances do they have a free rein to carry out other activities than those authorized by the treatment board.
Every year there are about 400 inmates under this type of regime in Catalonia.