Raül Romeva (Madrid, 1971) spent a good part of his time in prison for his participation in the October 1st trial writing his second doctoral thesis: Sport and physical activity in prisons in CataloniaDespite being known for his political and academic work, Romeva is deeply involved in sports. He was a water polo player and swimmer at CN Sabadell, a club of which he is a member. His children compete: Elda in athletics and Noah in water polo. He now publishes Sport for all (Editorial Base), where he reflects on the present and future of Catalan sport.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), based in Strasbourg, has now received appeals from all the political leaders the Spanish Supreme Court imprisoned over the 2017 Independence referendum. This Wednesday the last three were submitted Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) president and former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras and former Catalan ministers Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa. Now it is time to wait for the verdict. The appellants' legal team explained that all the appeals are expected to be grouped together into a single macro-case, and they reckon it will take "at least" two years to know the final outcome.

Pardons, despite the joy they meant for prisoners and their families, were not an easy dish to digest. The measure of grace allowed them to leave prison, but it did not overrule the Supreme Court sentence, nor their ban from office, nor did it have any impact on the other cases which originated in the Independence bid. The feeling which remained in the pro-independence movement –and among those pardoned– is that the injustice persisted. A year later, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) has decided to hold an event to commemorate the release from prison of political prisoners and has done so both to vindicate the pardoned and demand amnesty and the dialogue table as ways to resolve the political conflict.

The Constitutional Court has rejected former Catalan Vice-president Oriol Junqueras's and former Catalan Foreign Affairs minister Raül Romeva's appeals against the Independence Bid sentence. Nevertheless, three judges dissented from the majority opinion. They are Juan Ramón Sáez, the magistrate who already deviated from the Supreme Court's when he acquitted the leadership of the Catalan police at Spain's High Court; and Juan Antonio Xiol and María Luisa Balaguer, both of whom had already presented dissenting votes in the cases related to other pro-independence leaders.