A BARCELONA woman has sounded an SOS to help save almost 40 former Catalan government officials who are facing financial ruin – fines totalling €5.4 million (£4.6m) for their part in the 2017 independence referendum.

The woman, who we are calling Luisa, wrote to The National after the Spanish Court of Auditors levied the fines against the individuals who were involved in promoting Catalonia, its culture and economy in offices abroad.

They include Albert Royo (below), who formerly led the diplomatic agency Diplocat; former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, who was among the political prisoners released from jail after being pardoned by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez; and Andreu Mas-Colell, a former professor at Harvard and Berkeley universities who was Catalan economics minister between 2010 and 2016.

The National: Albert Royo.

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One case is especially cruel – that of Maryse Olive, the late Catalan representative in France, who died in 2017. The Court of Auditors is forcing her daughter to pay her mother’s fine.

Luisa said she is part of a minority “living in the state of Spain by obligation”, but that her minority claimed “a big majority” for Catalan independence.

“Spain is a fake democracy in a Western country, and this is slowly more evident by public opinion of other European countries, thanks to the pro-independence exiled Catalan members, who challenge the Spanish judiciary … in European and international courts for almost four years,” she said.

“Political dissidence representatives and the movement (always peaceful), suffer from clear ‘lawfare’ and repression applied by the Spanish state – governments, courts, police, fiscal strangulation and by all means they find.

“This is stronger since we had our referendum on self-determination and for independence, of October 1, 2017 – #1O (1Oct) – yes, the one where the peaceful citizens trying to vote and protecting the polls were brutally beaten in some schools by Spanish police, not Catalan police.”

She said the “lawfare” meant that if those being fined failed to pay, they could lose any assets they hold, such as property – including their main residence – which was akin to psychological torture for their family members, along with any private funds.

“This is most probably going to reach this level and happen, unless we, the people help them, because the amounts are really very high, and impossible in some cases, to afford privately,” she said.

“Other regions in Spain also have their own statutes and do exactly the same activities exactly, however, they are not pro-indy political dissidents of the violent Spanish centralism and regime, hence, they will never be legally persecuted.

“It [the Court of Auditors] is not even truly a court, but an administrative organism of the Spanish government.

“And it does not meet any European democratic standards. Its main task is to audit the accounts and expenses of political parties.”

Luisa said: “I would like to make my utmost to help now the 40 persons that should pay the deposit fines within 10 days … without a fair trial.

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“And the only way is to increase the best tool we have as defence against the Spanish economic repression – the Caixa de Solidaritat, the solidarity fund.”

This has already paid out more than €20m (£17m) to help others targeted by Spain over the indyref, but only has a remaining balance of €700,000 (£598,000).

Luisa added: “Spain is the only state in Europe where fascism was never defeated. It simply stayed ‘silent’ within the main institutions to continue control in Madrid of the all Spanish powers.

“We, the Catalans ‘awakened’ when we decided to win our own future by creating a new country for us, when we understood that within Spain, our full government and saving our own language from death, is simply impossible. And we are paying high with ‘lawfare’.”