(22 Jun 2021) Catalan's regional chief on Tuesday welcomed a Spanish government decision to pardon nine Catalan separatist leaders and said the move acknowledged that the separatists’ prosecution was unjust.
Pere Aragonès said the step "helps create credibility towards the right path. A path of negotiation and agreement towards solving the conflict."
Spain’s Cabinet pardoned them Tuesday in the hope of starting what Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a much-needed reconciliation in the country’s restive northeast.
But the announcement generated diverse reactions in the region.
Jordi Mata, professor of political science at the University of Barcelona, acknowledged "there are many things we don't know here" but suggested the move by Sachez "aims to solve the main conflict he has to face right now. His main political conflict."
Former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras, who in 2019 got the heaviest sentence of 13 years in prison for sedition and misuse of public funds, will go free along with his associates after spending three-and-a-half years behind bars.
The other eight included the former Cabinet members of the Catalan government, the former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, and two leaders of separatist civil society groups who had all received sentences ranging from nine to 12 years.
The pardons do not cover former Catalonia president Carles Puigdemont and the other high-profile separatists who fled Spain following the unsuccessful breakaway attempt.
The pardons lifted the remaining years of their prison terms while keeping intact their status as being unfit to hold public office.
A top Spanish government official said the separatists would likely be released on Wednesday, after the government's pardons are signed by King Felipe VI and published in the government's official gazette.
The official wasn't authorized to be named in media reports.
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