joan coma

Joan Coma, a pro-independence radical left CUP councillor in Vic, a town 60 kilometres from Barcelona, was arrested on Tuesday for ‘insurrection’ when calling for disobedience against the Spanish institutions in a plenary session a year ago. Two police officers in civilian clothes took him to Madrid’s ‘Audiencia Nacional’ court, where he had to declare this Wednesday after refusing to do so in October. Coma was freed without charges but the magistrate Ismael Moreno asked for the removal of Coma’s passport. “I hope to have a Catalan one soon”, Coma stated before the press soon after leaving the ‘Audiencia Nacional’ court. Hundreds of representatives from CUP, pro-independence left wing ERC and the Catalan European Democratic Party PDeCAT showed their support for Coma on Wednesday before many city halls throughout Catalonia and before the ‘Audiencia Nacional’ court.

Joan Coma, city councillor in Vic, a town 60 kilometres from Barcelona, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly ‘inciting to sedition’ when calling for disobedience against the Spanish institutions in a plenary session a year ago. After refusing to do so in October, this Wednesday he testified before Madrid’s ‘Audiencia Nacional’ and was cleared of charges, although his passport has been taken away by the magistrate. “We are up against a state with a strongly anti-democratic nature”, stated pro-independence radical left CUP’s Coma after leaving the Court and called on those who defend Catalonia’s independence but also those who don’t want to join efforts to “overcome the current stage”. Coma’s arrest is to be added to that of Mayor of Berga, Montse Venturós, who was accused of an ‘electoral crime’ for refusing to take down a pro-independence flag from the city hall’s façade on two occasions.