First to speak was Javitxu Aijón, one of the prisoners who was pardoned in September last year. The spokesperson said that “the coalition government still has time to put an end to this barbarity by pardoning Imad and Daniel immediately.” Aijón sought to highlight the coalition government’s contradiction during the election period: “if you are going to ask for votes against the far right, ¿what sense does it make to repress those of us who fight against it?”
At the end of the press conference, the platform’s spokesperson issued a call “to the entire working class to support the general strike next November 11 called by the Tenants’ Unions and labor unions to put an end to speculation and housing rent-seeking, since housing should not be a business; to improve the wage and material conditions of the working classes; and to increase the level of struggle, collective awareness and political organization.”
THE SENTENCE
The sentence imposed on the four imprisoned young people among the Zaragoza Six amounts to four years and nine months in prison for demonstrating in January 2019 in response to hate speech delivered during a VOX rally. The sentence came after five years of legal proceedings that ended with a Supreme Court ruling and generated thousands of expressions of solidarity, including signatures supporting a pardon, financial contributions, messages on social media and participation in demonstrations and rallies across the country.
To conclude her remarks, Rochela reiterated the demands that have accompanied the ‘Libertad 6 de Zaragoza’ platform throughout its campaign: the immediate release of its imprisoned colleagues before the end of the legislative term; the repeal of the Gag Law; a non-punitive reform of the Criminal Code; and an end to police infiltration of social groups.
