Translated by Xoan M. Paredes
December 11th was a day of celebration for the Galizan pro-independence movement as one of its political prisoners, Miguel Garcia, was released from the Teixeiro prison after enduring four and a half years of Spanish punishment. However, that was also a bittersweet day, as this news portal learned that Mr Garcia got out under extremely strict measures of supervised release, effectively imposing a “civil death” on this Galician citizen, and thus highlighting a new form of punishment.
Miguel Garcia was arrested in June 2019, accused, along with Joám Manuel Sanches, of providing cover and support to the Galizan underground militants Antom Garcia and Assunçom Losada, who had been on the run from Spanish justice for thirteen years prior to that. Since then, Miguel Garcia spent over four years imprisoned in Spanish institutions, and only recently moved back into Galizan territory. We now know that Mr Sanches, already released as well, will also be facing the same extreme restrictions that will effectively hinder their social reintegration and use of their political rights.
A prison with no visible walls
According to the verdict, ratified by the Central Penitentiary Surveillance Court, based on article 106.2 of the Spanish Penal Code, Miguel Garcia now faces a one-year sentence of supervised release.
The first measure of this sentence is “the obligation to be traceable at all times by means of electronic devices that allow permanent monitoring, with the obligation to present himself at a specific day and time, in a specific location, whenever asked”. In addition to wearing an electronic bracelet and reporting to a police station every fortnight, the former prisoner cannot “leave the [Galizan] province of Ourense without permission”. This, in fact, represents a limitation on his right to freedom of movement, therefore interfering with any possibility of resuming regular employment, personal and family relationships.
Along the same lines of obstructing common human relations, Miguel Garcia is now prohibited from communicating “by physical or virtual [electronic] means” with former prisoners Antom Garcia, Assunçom Losada and Joám Manuel Sanches. This last condition even prevents any public display of solidarity, either from him or to him, from them or to them. Furthermore, his online activity is to be monitored by the Spanish police, with a prohibition to “access online environments prone to radicalisation”, an intentionally broad statement that could be interpreted in a number of different ways.
Prohibiting free expression and the transmission of memory
Being well aware of the relevance of the so-called “transmission of memory” in revolutionary movements, and particularly in pro-independence movements, the verdict also forbids Miguel Garcia from “actively participating in any public act, lecture, conference or similar, radio or television broadcast, in person or online, organised for the purpose of displaying his terrorist experience [sic] and setting an example for the audience”. Likewise, Miguel cannot attend any public act “exalting or praising terrorism”, which in judicial language means that he cannot participate in any solidarity act for current political prisoners or for/with former prisoners.
These draconic bans designed to interfere as much as possible with the new lives of former political prisoners are, as a matter of fact, a relatively recent development in Spanish law, unimaginable in the past.