The prisoners of the 'procés', between Marchena and Sánchez

Tribute to the pro-independence politicians imprisoned on the first anniversary of the 'procés' sentence.Toni Albir / EFE

A year after the sentence, which was carried out yesterday, the nine prisoners of the procés have one eye on Judge Manuel Marchena and the other on President Pedro Sánchez.

Their living conditions in prison depend on the Supreme Court, but their options to achieve definitive freedom before time are in the hands of the Government through pardon.

Meanwhile, the prisoners - who have been in prison for nearly three years, since they entered preventive prison after the declaration of independence in October 2017 - do not lose faith in Strasbourg, convinced that European justice will agree with them.

The Supreme Court, which sentenced them to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition and / or embezzlement - penalties considered excessive by the majority of parties represented in Parliament, pro-independence but also Catalonia in Comú Podem and the PSC - has the last word on the penitentiary regime in which they must serve the sentence: or the semi-freedom that the Generalitat advocates or the ordinary (closed) regime that the Prosecutor's Office defends.

The third grade (semi-release) would be a relief for the prisoners, because it would allow them to spend the day outside and return to the prison only to sleep during the week.

They already enjoyed it, in fact, for two weeks, until the seven male prisoners were suspended by a decision of a prison surveillance judge, pending the ruling of the Supreme Court (the two female prisoners are still in that open regime ).

The second degree (the ordinary one, in which the majority of prisoners in Spain meet) would be a setback after a year of ups and downs in which they have enjoyed some freedom: before the third degree the Generalitat applied to them for a time article 100.2 of the prison regulations, authorizing daily outings to work, volunteer and care for family members.

In any case, what is essential for imprisoned politicians - the prospect of being released - will not depend so much on justice as on politics.

The Government of Pedro Sánchez has already begun to process pardon petitions submitted by lawyers, professional groups, unions, political parties and up to three former presidents of the Catalan Parliament.

The first of them, and the one on the table of the Ministry of Justice, is that of the Barcelona lawyer Francesc Jufresa, who requests a total or partial pardon for the nine imprisoned politicians considering the sentences “disproportionate”.

The publication of the sentence, a year ago, was received with anger and fire in the streets of the main Catalan cities.

For seven days there were incidents, some serious, in Barcelona and the rest of the provincial capitals.

What began as an energetic rejection of the politicians' condemnation - which a good part of the independence movement took for granted even before the trial began - took, over the days, an anti-police aspect, and the confrontations between protesters and Mossos d 'Esquadra were especially virulent.

Pardon is a prerogative of the Government.

The latter must listen to the interested parties —including, in this case, the Supreme Court—, but this is still a procedure because the executive has the last word.

Having ruled out the possibility of an amnesty, which does not fit into the Constitution, the pardon is Sánchez's only asset to appease the independence movement.

Ups and downs

The processing of the pardon can last months;

the decision on the third degree should not take so long.

In just one year, the prison situation of the prisoners has suffered ups and downs.

The Generalitat granted them daily departures in February with article 100.2, which was generally endorsed by the prison surveillance judges, although with the strong opposition of the Prosecutor's Office.

But a single case, that of the former president of the Parliament Carme Forcadell, changed everything: a judge decided to send the appeal to the Supreme Court, which charged against 100.2 and declared itself competent, as the sentencing body, to decide on the prison situation of the rest of the prisoners.

In July, the Catalan government went one step further and applied the semi-liberty regime to politicians.

But the overwhelming pronouncement of the Supreme had its weight.

When the Prosecutor's Office appealed the measure, the judges took divergent paths.

The one who attends the affairs of the Lledoners prison (Barcelona), where the seven male prisoners remain, temporarily suspended the third degree until the Supreme Court pronounces.

That is why the former vice president Oriol Junqueras;

former directors Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull;

and the activists Jordi Sànchez (ANC) and Jordi Cuixart (Òmnium) are now in a closed regime with no exits.

Carme Forcadell and former counselor Dolors Bassa, on the contrary, continue to enjoy the third degree because the competent judge did not suspend it, and their case is not yet on the table of the Supreme Court.