«Why do you see the mote in your brother's eye, but do not see the beam in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Stop, I will pull the mote out of your eye! — and behold, there is a beam in thine eye? Thou hypocrite, first take out the beam out of thine own eye; after that thou mayest see, and take out the mote out of thy brother's eye.» (Mt 7:3-5).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the ruling of a Russian court to commute a suspended sentence imposed on Russian opposition activist Alexey Nawalny to a prison term of two years and eight months as «far removed from any rule of law». Many German and European politicians did the same.
Why were all those who now criticise the Russian court ruling silent when, in violation of human rights and applicable Spanish law, the Spanish Supreme Court unlawfully sentenced deposed Catalan government members and a parliamentary speaker, as well as leading representatives of Catalan civil society, to long prison terms in October 2019? These had held a referendum in Catalonia in accordance with Spanish and mandatory United Nations law, the holding of which was not punishable under Spanish law, even if the Spanish government had it declared 'illegal' in contravention of applicable Spanish law. According to the rule of law, the convicted Catalans could not be proven to be criminally relevant. They were also denied their right to a trial in the first instance before the legally competent court, which in any state governed by the rule of law would result in the nullity of the judgement. Instead, they were sentenced in the first and only instance — this alone is a serious violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Spanish constitution and of the corresponding human right to the court and two instances provided for by law — by a court not competent under Spanish law to long prison sentences against which no appeal could be lodged:
Oriol Junqueras: 13 years
Jordi Turull: 12 years
Raül Romeva: 12 years
Dolors Bassa: 12 years
Carme Forcadell: 11 years, 6 months
Joaquim Forn: 10 years, 6 months
Josep Rull: 10 years, 6 months
Jordi Sànchez: 9 years
Jordi Cuixart: 9 years
Another three Catalans were sentenced to heavy fines and politically muzzled with a partial professional ban.
This is Spain! This is the European Union watching and remaining silent. Those who remain silent agree. German Chancellor Angela Merkel remained silent, as did all the leaders of the European states and the European Union. Through her government spokesperson, she let it be known that Spain had tough laws with regard to the criminal prosecution of Catalan politicians by Spain even in the initial phase of the repression. That the charges and convictions had no basis in Spanish law, but represented an unprecedented arbitrary justice, which broke national Spanish and mandatory United Nations law, that courts in several European states, most recently in Belgium, read the riot act to the Spanish unjust justice system, which can by no means be called constitutional with regard to the Catalonia conflict, that the United Nations Working Group against Arbitrary Detention, after careful examination, classified the detention of the Catalan politicians as arbitrary and inadmissible, demanded their immediate release and the initiation of criminal investigations against the officials responsible for the detention of the Catalan politicians, was not worthy of comment by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the representatives of the European Union. Obviously, they do not care that in Spain blameless politicians are illegally sentenced to long prison terms without any legal basis, while a prison sentence of two years and eight months for a Russian oppositionist is denounced with publicity.
Those who deliberately ignore, play down, tolerate and cover up the obviously illegal actions of the Spanish judiciary and the Spanish state against Catalonia and outstanding representatives of the Catalan people do not appear credible when they loudly denounce an actually or supposedly illegal action of the judiciary on a much smaller scale in another state that is perceived as a competitor in geopolitical terms. Anyone who obviously cultivates such a double standard must accept the biblical accusation of hypocrisy and becomes untrustworthy. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, deposed by Spain in October 2017 in breach of organic Spanish state law, has repeatedly drawn the European Union's attention to precisely this point. Now, on 5 February 2021, the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov, smugly pointed out to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell i Fontelles, that the European Union was silently tolerating the obviously illegal detention of Catalan political prisoners in Spain, but was nevertheless making accusations against the Russian judiciary for imposing a prison sentence with an obvious double standard.
This will not be the last time that representatives of other states make accusations of double standards against the European Union, which are unfortunately completely true in the matter. It will be interesting to see whether the media will report on this incident in a balanced, factual manner and, in particular, without censoring omissions. The fact that China, for example, in a propaganda video, contrasted the brutal action of the Spanish state against peaceful Catalans with the non-violence of Chinese police officers in the face of relatively aggressive demonstrators, which was presented as civilised, in order to show the world that China deals with such situations more calmly than a member state of the European Union, has so far gone largely unnoticed in the European press. Europe just keep quiet and watch. The European Union, however, is losing its moral credibility both internally and externally through the betrayal of its own fundamental values and human rights in the conflict between Spain and Catalonia, and is forfeiting the high reputation it enjoyed in the world until recently. If it continues to allow Spain to trample on human rights, it will also lose its raison d'être in the long run and disintegrate. Hypocritical turning a blind eye and tolerating silence, disregarding the human rights of millions of Catalan citizens of the European Union, corrode the foundations of the European Union and irresponsibly damage the process of European unification. In the mirror that the Russian Foreign Minister held up to the European Union on 5 February 2021, one saw the ugly grimace of cynical contempt for the human rights of the Catalan people. It was not the Russian minister's intention to show solidarity with the battered and oppressed Catalan people. But with his words he clearly expressed what is thought about Spain and Europe all over the world and thus brought the disgrace of the European Union to the attention of the whole world.
How much longer, Europe, will you stand by and look the other way?
https://www.elnacional.cat/en/politics/diplomatic-friction-russia-germany-catalonia_434742_102.html
https://amp.economist.com/europe/2021/02/13/the-european-union-must-face-up-to-the-real-russia