Jordi Cuixart

Jordi Cuixart
Born
Jordi Cuixart i Navarro

(1975-04-22) 22 April 1975 (age 49)
Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, Catalonia, Spain
NationalitySpanish
OccupationBusinessperson & activist
Known forFormer president of Òmnium Cultural (December 2015 - February 2022)
Signature

Jordi Cuixart i Navarro (born 22 April 1975) is a Spanish businessman and cultural activist from Catalonia. He was the president of Òmnium Cultural,[1] a non-profit cultural organisation founded in 1961 with more than 190,000 members and 52 local branches in Catalonia,[2] from December 2015 to February 2022.[3]

As part of his role in the pro-independence demonstrations prior to the Catalan independence referendum of 2017, he was imprisoned from October 2017 until June 2021 under charge of sedition brought by the Spanish prosecutor's office. In October 2019, after two years of pre-trial detention, Cuixart was sentenced to nine years of prison for sedition.[4] Amnesty International believes his detention and sentence constituted a disproportionate restriction on his rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, and urged Spain to free him.[5][6] The NGO Front Line Defenders [7] and the Council of Europe[8] consider Jordi Cuixart a human rights defender. He repeatedly said that “as a political prisoner my priority is not getting out of prison, but the solution of the political situation and struggle for democracy and human rights [9] ”. He was freed in June 2021 following a government pardon.[10][11]

  1. ^ Gabarró, Jordi (2015-12-19). "Jordi Cuixart és proclamat nou president d'Òmnium". Òmnium Cultural (in Catalan). Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  2. ^ "About us". Òmnium Cultural. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  3. ^ ACN (2022-02-26). "El filósofo Xavier Antich, elegido nuevo presidente de Òmnium en sustitución de Jordi Cuixart". eldiario.es. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  4. ^ 324cat (2019-10-15). "Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez sentenced to 9 years' prison for sedition". CCMA (in Catalan). Retrieved 2019-10-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Spain: leading Catalan figures Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart should be freed". www.amnesty.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  6. ^ "Amnesty International Calls on Spain to Release Two of the Jailed Catalan Leaders". The New York Times. 2019-11-19. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  7. ^ "Spain: Public Prosecutor opposes release of Jordi Cuixart from prison". Front Line Defenders. 2020-10-14. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  8. ^ "Extract of Minutes of the hearing on "The situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member States" held in Strasbourg on 1 October 2019 PÀGINA 7" (PDF). The situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member States
  9. ^ "Behind bars with Catalonia's separatists". POLITICO. 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  10. ^ "Freed Catalan leader calls on Spain to 'think about future generations'". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Freed Catalan Leader Junqueras Vows to Continue Working for Independence". US News. Retrieved 28 June 2021.