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The Catalan government's prison administration department has received the required communication from Spain's interior ministry that the Catalan political prisoners currently held in Madrid jails are to be moved to prisons in Catalonia. It seems probable that the transfer will take place on Tuesday and the first group to arrive will be Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Carme Forcadell, Dolors Bassa, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, according to information given to El Nacional.

The four men will be transferred to the prison of Lledoners, near the city of Manresa, while Forcadell and Bassa will go to Puig de les Basses penitentiary, near Figueres. Sources in the Catalan prisons department say prisoners' families have been consulted on the centres they are to be moved to. The main factor involved is proximity to their homes but there are also security issues.

The transfer will be made in "the next few days" say prison administration sources, although it  is "imminent" and very likely to take place on Tuesday. The administrators have considered all of the family requests "in line with the principle of equality applied to all prisoners". "The destinations are those which the prison administration servcies consider most appropriate", they say.

​Of the six prisoners about to arrive at Catalan prisons, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart have been in prison since 16th October. Oriol Junqueras went into Estremera jail on 2nd November, and Romeva, Forcadell and Bassa, on 23rd March. 

Once in Catalonia

Like all prisoners that enter prison, the pro-independence leaders will first enter an admission module, where a series of formalities will be carried out, such as identification, medical checks and interviews. 

Afterwards, decisions will be taken on where they are placed within the prison. They will be in "ordinary modules" appropriate for their profiles, "the same as any prisoner", say prison administration sources. 

The routine of prisoners on remand is the same as that of those who are convicted. The only difference is that they do not take part in specialized activities relating to their specific offence, as they have not been convicted. They can also take part in educational, sporting, artistic or work activities.

Visiting rules 

According to justice system sources, the political prisoners will see their families for the same number of hours as at present. 

As for all of the 6,712 prisoners in Catalan penitentiary centres, those that have children under 10 years old are able to share a special visiting session with their children and an accompanying adult, lasting 90 minutes, once a month. Currently, they have a 3 hour visit of this type once every three months.

As for the normal visits, through glass with a telephone, for relatives and friends, the prisoners will have the same time limits as before: 40 minutes per week, which can be split across the two days of the weekend, twenty minutes per day, or all together on either Saturday or Sunday.

Those who remain behind

Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn are, for the time being, remaining in Estremera prison near Madrid, waiting for Spanish prison administration department to take the same steps for them as for the rest. First, authorization has to be sought and then Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena has to give his approval, as he has done for the other six up till now. Even though the investigation phase of the case has not finished yet, Llarena has said that he will not need to call the defendants to court again and so the transfer has been authorized.

On Monday, the interior ministry communicated to Catalonia's justice department that it will activate the transfer if there is no problem, and the Catalan government has given the green light to go ahead with the move. 

The €2 million bond 

In the meantime, the Catalan leaders' defence lawyers together with civil groups Òmnium and ANC are carrying out formalities to pay the sum of more than 2 million euros which judge Pablo Llarena demanded last Friday that the defendants hand over within 2 working days - that is, by Tuesday. The defence teams have not considered the option of not paying the bond, and all the mechanisms have already been activated to make it effective. 

The sum, demanded in relation with the misuse of public funds charges, involves all members of president Carles Puigdemont's Catalan government which organised the referendum of October 1st.