Former PSOE Secretary Santos Cerdán Enters Soto del Real Prison; 'Las Seis de La Suiza' Start 3.5-Year Sentences Amid ERC Pardons Call

Santos Cerdán, the former secretary of organization of Spain's PSOE party, has been admitted to the Soto del Real prison near Madrid. Soto del Real is known for its relatively extensive infrastructure and is sometimes referred to as a 'VIP' prison due to the number of high-profile inmates it houses. Cerdán's incarceration follows his passage through the Supreme Court. Separately, six female union activists known as 'las seis de La Suiza' have begun serving three-and-a-half-year sentences for serious coercion charges at Villabona prison in Asturias. Their imprisonment has sparked protests and calls for their immediate pardon, including demands from the ERC party in the Spanish Congress, which has condemned what it terms 'union repression.' In response to recent photographs of Santos Cerdán inside Soto del Real, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced that the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions has launched an investigation. Demonstrations in Gijón have also called for the release of 'las seis de La Suiza.'