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EuroMed Rights deplores the reprisal against Iñaki Rivera, Director of the Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights (OSPDH), for reporting ill-treatment against prisoners. “All acts of harassment and criminalisation against Iñaki Rivera must halt. Professor Rivera should be able to undertake his legitimate and essential work defending human rights in the prison system without obstructions or reprisals,” says EuroMed Rights President, Wadih Al-Asmar.
Iñaki Rivera, who is also a professor at the University of Barcelona and Chair of the System of Registration and Communication of Institutional Violence (SIRECOVI), has been summoned to testify today, 18 September 2019, as a defendant, before the Court of Instruction in Barcelona. The summons follows a complaint by the prison commission of the trade union ‘Comisiones Obreras’ for “defaming prison officials” during an interview in November 2018 at the Catalan public TV (TV3). While the judicial process is still in an initial phase, Iñaki Rivera may face a sentence of public defamation that can reach up to two years in prison.