Spanish police harass, spy on Catalan separatist party

 

Spanish police harass, spy on Catalan separatist party

By
Alejandro López

27 September 2018

The Catalan separatist Candidatures of Popular Unity (CUP) party has publicly denounced a coordinated and overt campaign of police spying directed against it.

At a press conference last Thursday in front of CUP headquarters, National Secretary Núria Gibert and former deputy Mireia Boya explained that the police have been spying on them for over a year, since before last October’s Catalan independence referendum, and are continuing to do so.

Boya said that “the repression is from well before last September [when the crackdown on Catalan secessionists started].” She continued: “To this day, we are suffering police monitoring of our headquarters. There are undercover policemen watching us, watching and monitoring each one of our movement.”

In the course of the press conference, various CUP members showed photos to the media of the alleged spies. According to Boya, the “undercover officers write down notes and take photographs of those who come in and out of the premises.”

It would be unusual if the police carried out physical surveillance without also systematically intercepting phone calls and digital communications.

Boya said the espionage targeting the CUP has been reported to the Interior Department of the Catalan regional government, so that the regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, can investigate. They have not yet received a reply, however.

The CUP warned that they intend to find out who has ordered the spying and why, “since this is a serious violation of democratic rights and freedoms.” According to Boya, there are “1,200 people persecuted by the Spanish justice system, with eavesdropping, espionage and monitoring.”

Gibert recalled last…

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