Catalan political prisoner Cuixart sends message to Leyla Güven

"I’m writing you in order to convey to all the Kurdish prisoners on hunger strike our sincere solidarity and support and to demand their immediate freedom."

HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven, who has been on hunger strike for 132 demanding the end of isolation against Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, continues to receive messages of solidarity from international people.

The last message came from Jordi Cuixart, a Catalan politician and political prisoner who was detained with other Catalan politicians after the declaration of Catalonia independence. 

The message was sent to Leyla Güven through Cuixart's lawyer, Olivier Peter.

“We are sending you our strength, respect and courage from Catalonia”, said Jordi Cuixart in the message sent to ANF.

The full text of Cuixart's message reads:

Dear Leyla Güven,

My name is Jordi Cuixart and I am the president of Òmnium Cultural (‘Culture for Everybody’), a Catalan cultural civil society organisation based in Barcelona that currently has over 160.000 members. I am currently a political prisoner in Spain.

I’m writing you in order to convey to all the Kurdish prisoners on hunger strike our sincere solidarity and support and to demand their immediate freedom. I hope you stay well and strong.

Injustice and human rights require the unity of all the people of the world in defense of civil and political rights, that is why we claim the dignity of civil disobedience and your determination in the struggle for women's rights and fundamental freedoms.

I am in pre-trial detention for a year and a half on charges of rebellion facing a sentence of almost 20 years for participating in a peaceful demonstration and to promote the 2017 1st October Catalan self-determination referendum. These days I’m being tried in a political trial in the Supreme Court, in Madrid. I am not and have never been a politician, and I sit in prison because I am the president of a cultural civil society organisation.

Despite our huge different conditions, we have both been repressed in’s 21st century by our States for exercising our right to dissent and to our freedom of expression, so we’re now in the same fight.

No prison is going to prevent democrats around the world from fighting each other so that no one has to be in jail for their ideas. For defending human rights and for struggling to achieve a fair and egalitarian world for all.

That is why, from Catalonia, we send you our strength, esteem and courage. We’re sure that no matter how much they try to paralyse us through fear and repression, one day justice will prevail.

As Gandhi said “Truth never damages a cause that is just”.

Warm regards."

Who is Jordi Cuixart

Jordi Cuixart is a Catalan businessman and political and cultural activist. He is the president of Omnium Cultural, a non-profit cultural organisation founded in 1961 with around 130,000 members and 40 local branches in Catalonia. As part of his role in the pro-independence demonstrations prior to the Catalan independence referendum of 2017, he has been imprisoned since October 2017 under charges of sedition and violent rebellion brought by the Spanish prosecutor's office.