2024-01-29 16:09:42
Pablo González, Spanish journalist accused of spying for Russia in Ukraine and detained for almost two years in Poland, he has just received consular visit number 17. In it, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, it has been verified that “all of Mr. González’s rights are being perfectly respected.” .
“Their right to communication and consular visits are being fulfilled.legal assistance, visits from their lawyers“, the head of Spanish diplomacy has listed during an appearance in the Congress of Deputies. “Also their right to communicate with their families and to be visited by them, the right to know their positions and that all precautionary measures regarding provisional detention are in accordance with the legality of a country that belongs to the EU and is within the European judicial area”.
The Pablo González Support Group assures, however, that their rights are being violated. They claim that it is detained without charge and incommunicado, that his partner has only visited him twice and that he cannot make video conferences with his children. They ask the Spanish Government to put an end to the “psychological torture” conditions suffered in the Radom prison, which they describe as a European “Guantánamo” due to the harsh prison conditions.
Pablo González (Pavel Rubtsov in his double Russian passport) was arrested in Poland on February 28, 2022. He worked for media outlets such as Naiz, Gara, Público or La Sexta. Since then, Polish justice has been extending his preventive detention without taking him to trial. According to Russian press reports in exile, González would have been sending dissident reports to Moscow. His lawyers, including the Spanish Gonzalo Boye, deny the accusations.
“Psychological torture” in the “European Guantánamo”
The Pablo González Support Group has asked the Spanish Government to demand his transfer to Spain until a trial is held against him. Last Friday, they delivered a letter to the Polish Embassy addressed to Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, recently elected to the position after the centrist Donald Tusk became President of the Government. The new Executive has stated that one of its objectives is to restore the credibility of the Rule of Law in Poland, after several years of the far-right PiS party in power. The European Commission has blocked funds destined for Poland after a report from Brussels on the Polish judicial system that exposed the politicization of Justice in the country.
In the letter, as this newspaper has seen, they ask him “to demonstrate his commitment to human rights and the rule of law” with concrete actions regarding González: expedite the judicial procedure so that he has a fair, transparent trial; he respect for procedural guarantees, allowing their lawyers to access the file to prepare their defense; respect for human rights in prison and the improvement of prison conditions; family visits and phone or video calls with your children; and transfer to Spain awaiting trial.
This last possibility was pointed out for Pablo González by the Commissioner for Justice of the European Commission, Didier Reynders, they allege, in his response to a parliamentary question about this case by Idoia Villanueva, from The Left, Podemos.
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