More than 400 academics in the fields of political science, law and other disciplines express their worries that electoral monitors in Spain are being threatened with jail over their role in Catalonia’s independence referendumFollowing the decision of four Catalan political prisoners to go on hunger strike (Report, theguardian.com, 4 December), we write to draw attention to the plight of many others who remain under the radar of international attention. As academics in the fields of political science, law and other disciplines, we are particularly concerned about the decision by the Spanish judiciary to prosecute two political science scholars and two law scholars based at three different universities in Barcelona. The four academics, (Jordi Matas, Tània Verge, Marc Marsal and Josep Pagès) along with a lawyer (Marta Alsina) were appointed members of the electoral commission in September 2017 by the parliament of Catalonia to monitor the 1 October 2017 referendum. In doing so, they acted at the request of the parliament of Catalonia, which had a valid legal mandate at the time. Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition

Source: The Guardian December 07, 2018 16:52 UTC