PRO-INDEPENDENCE politician Anna Gabriel from the Catalunya party CUP has fled to Switzerland and faces a national arrest warrant if she returns to Spain.
She has been summoned by a court in Madrid for a hearing, but has refused to go as she does not believe she would have a fair trial.
“I'll be more useful to the independence movement in a country that will protect my rights than I would be behind bars,” Sra Gabriel told Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
According to the broadsheet, the CUP member could be jailed for up to 30 years for sedition due to her active role in the disputed independence referendum in October.
But Switzerland has said it will not extradite her.
Spokesman for the Federal Justice Office, Folco Galli, says: “This appears to be a political offence and, according to our criminal code and the European Convention on Human Rights, an extradition order where all forms of legal assistance cannot be agreed.”
Additionally, Galli said his department has not received any communication from the Spanish authorities, but this is believed to have crossed in the post with the Le Temps article as the warrant was issued by Spain's Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena yesterday (Wednesday).
The CUP (Candidature for the Unity of the People) held a conference in Barcelona earlier to explain that their former spokeswoman 'had not fled' the country, but had 'sought refuge in the face of political persecution'.
They want to try to drum up support from the international community now that a sixth politician involved in the referendum is in exile abroad – deposed regional president Carles Puigdemont and four of his ministers are in Brussels and unable to return to Spain, since they would be arrested immediately.
“I've always campaigned for the referendum, but peacefully,” Anna Gabriel told Le Temps.
“The Catalunya issue should be able to be resolved politically, yet the Spanish authorities want to eradicate the independence movement through repression.
Gabriel, 42, a former law professor at Barcelona Autonomous University, says Spain's government 'is doing nothing to guarantee our safety' in the face of 'fascist violence', and claims she has received death threats from the far right and is being pursued by the press.
She even compared the Catalunya situation to 'what is happening at the moment in Turkey'.
“This is a witch-hunt against around 900 people who are either under investigation or formally charged, amongst whom are teachers, police officers, politicians and even ordinary voters,” Gabriel continues.
“When I saw the fate of some of my colleagues who have been in jail since December, I realised I would have to leave Catalunya.
“I'm not the only one who is at risk of going to prison; the whole of the regional government is under threat.”
Amnesty International, among other human rights charities, have already condemned judge Pablo Llarena's decision to keep Òmnium Cultural's leader Jordi Cuixart and head of the Catalunya National Assembly (ANC) Jordi Sànchez behind bars for their having organised a demonstration in favour of independence.
Anna Gabriel's solicitor in Geneva, Olivier Peter, believes the risk of her being forced to return to Spain is minimal, given that the European arrest warrant against Puigdemont and his ministers was withdrawn.
Peter, who also defended a Basque militant facing extradition in the past, says he cannot guarantee that a trial in Madrid would be impartial.
“My client is being pursued for political reasons, which makes an extradition order illegal, so we trust the Swiss authorities will refuse to sanction the imprisonment of elected Parliament members for defending their right to vote.”
