The Catalan woman freed after seven years in prison in Oman arrives in Barcelona.

BarcelonaThe young Catalan woman Fátima Ofkir, released by Omani authorities after spending seven years in a women's prison sentenced to life imprisonment, landed at Barcelona airport this Sunday morning amid the excitement of family and friends. Ofkir, from Hospitalet de Llobregat, has been included in the amnesty that the Sultan grants each year after Ramadan, according to the Catalan woman's defense team, Vosseler Abogados. The law firm has thanked everyone who collaborated in her release, and in particular businessman Antonio Sagnier and Judge Baltasar Garzón.

The young woman was serving a life sentence after being recruited by a drug trafficking network in Spain, who sent her to pick up a package containing seven kilos of morphine from a hotel in Oman. Omani police raided her room and found the drug shipment in a closet. Fátima entered the Muscat women's prison in August 2018, when she was 18 years old. In fact, the Catalan became the youngest Spaniard in the world to serve a sentence in a foreign country. In prison, she was forced to wear a burqa, pray five times a day, and could only speak to her family by phone for one minute every two weeks.

According to Vosseler Abogados, the young Catalan woman's legal proceedings were "full of irregularities," and they also criticized the "very serious errors" made by her first lawyer. They claim that "he simply sought to obtain the money raised by the family in Spain without diligently covering the case in a trial in which Fátima was completely helpless, as she didn't speak Arabic or understand anything about what was happening."

"Discreet" Arrival

The young woman arrived at the airport, but eventually left the premises unseen. Her mother and some friends were waiting for her at the arrivals gate of Terminal 1. "I'm home now, and when I feel a little better, when I'm perfectly stabilized, I'll be able to talk to all of you, but for now, I'm home," she said in a video distributed by Vosseler Advocats. Mónica Santiago, her lawyer, apologized to those who came to greet her. "It was impossible," she said, while asking for "a little patience until Fátima can stabilize and face a press conference or a conversation."

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, thanked the Sultan for his "humanity" and noted that Fátima's "discreet" arrival had been arranged. "Now she should be able to resume her privacy, the normality of her life," Albares said in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. The Minister of Foreign Affairs specified that the young Catalan woman landed at 7:25 a.m. at El Prat Airport and that she is "well and excited." "She has already met with family and friends, and we have arranged for her to pass through a discreet area of the airport. The important thing now is that she can return to normality as soon as possible," he stated.