The Spanish government violated Carles Puigdemont’s right to political freedom by forcing him to live in exile in Belgium, his legal team told the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
“Even though he has never been convicted of a crime or stripped of his political rights in a court of law, Mr. Puigdemont’s rights to political participation, political expression and political association have thus been ruptured and ultimately snuffed out, at least for an indeterminate period, in pursuit of Spain’s broad political objection to independence from Catalonia, and in order to stifle political opposition and the expression of dissent,” said a document sent by Puigdemont’s lawyers to the UN.
The former Catalan regional president faces arrest the moment he re-enters Spain from self-imposed exile in Belgium, where he fled after last October’s referendum and declaration of independence, which were declared illegal by Spanish courts. His letter to the UN committee says “the series of steps taken by the Spanish executive and judicial authorities has rendered it impossible for him to discharge his duties and responsibilities as the democratically elected president of Catalonia.”
The submission came shortly after Puigdemont announced he was “provisionally” renouncing his candidacy and endorsing Jordi Sànchez, head of the pro-independence Catalan National Assembly, who’s currently in prison.
The text sent to the UN argues that he “has been forced against his will and under protest to step aside to allow the nomination of an alternative candidate. He takes this step in the interests of the Catalan people, to enable the Catalan parliament to perform its governing function, to re-establish a measure of autonomy for the region, and thereby to advance Catalonia along its journey towards independence.”
The complaint to the UN is part of a legal strategy “to move the battleground onto the international stage,” and to show that Puigdemont is the “primary target of the Spanish government’s oppressive strategy,” according to a statement released on Friday
The Spanish government, meanwhile, is investigating how Puigdemont is paying for his stay in Brussels, El País reported Friday. According to the newspaper, the government wants to make sure that not one euro of public money is being spent to support Puigdemont.