Catalans' Harsh Sentences Are Un-European
Spain’s long prison sentences for Catalan separatists are an important reminder that judicial independence isn’t only an issue in Eastern Europe.
The prison sentences are being appealed in the European Court of Human Rights.
Photographer: Carolina Cabral Fernandez/BloombergThe prison sentences of nine to 13 years handed down by the Spanish Supreme Court to nine Catalan secessionist leaders raise the question of whether Spain has a law and order problem that should bother the European Union the way Poland’s and Hungary’s infractions do. Few other democracies would have sent people to prison for such a long time for what is essentially no more than extreme speech.
In demanding freedom for Oriol Junqueras and his fellow former officials involved in Catalonia’s illegal secession referendum and failed independence declaration of 2017, Catalans thronging the streets of Barcelona have a more legitimate cause than in insisting on unilateral secession. The harshness of the punishment is distinctly un-European.