The Supreme Court threatens prison officials with criminal consequences if they allow pro-independence prisoners to spend the lockdown at their homes

The Supreme Court issues a press release stating that if the Treatment Boards of the prisons where the 1 October prisoners are being held allow them to spend the COVID-19 lockdown at their homes, it will ask the boards and the prison directors to identify the officials who supported the measure, and that these officials could be prosecuted in the context of ‘criminal consequences for a possible crime of prevarication’. The CatalanMinister of Justice, Ester Capella, had explained that same morning that they would study whether prisoners in the flexible regime provided for under Article 100.2 could spend the lockdown at their homes, but the Supreme Court’s statement only mentions thepro-independence prisoners. The Supreme Court’s threat comes despite the fact that it does not have the jurisdiction to try Catalan prison officials.