The Department of Justice has lifted the sanction against Rosa Peral, sentenced to 25 years for the murder of her ex-partner in the so-called ‘Crime of the Urban Police’, for the telephone interviews she has granted to the media and also for a documentary broadcast by Netflix, as reported by Catalunya Ràdio and confirmed by ACN.
In mid-September, it was filed for misuse of the internal communications regime, which represents a serious offense, restricting communications and visits. The lifting of the sanction was communicated to Peral this Wednesday.
A file was also opened against the other convicted person, Albert López, and precautionary measures have been applied for having the numbers of two journalists on his authorized telephone list, although his defense alleges that they were authorized two years ago. According to his lawyer, now López can only call him and after prior authorization from those in charge of the prison.
Prisoners are authorized to communicate with family or friends, to a series of certain and limited telephone numbers. When they want to give interviews to the media, the inmate must notify the prison management, who is the one who evaluates them before making a decision. They do this jointly with correctional affairs, the treatment and communication board. To decide whether to grant interviews, several elements are taken into account, such as not altering the center’s routine, security issues, the impact it may have on the inmate’s insertion process or the protection of victims, among others. If authorized, they are carried out with paper and pencils, through the communication booths. For audiovisual media, they are not authorized.
Skipping these types of requirements is a serious offense, according to the Department of Justice, which insists that the Catalan criminal execution model guarantees and preserves privacy in inmates’ communications with their family and friends. This means that these types of meetings or calls are not monitored.