Poet Cheran Rudhramoorthy is one of the most influential authors who documented the Civil War in Sri Lanka and the genocide on the Tamil community (1983-2009). After a life of seeing the horrors of the conflict so closely, he now travels around the world to fight “for equality, against injustice and for autonomy and self-determination” for his people and others, including Catalonia.

Speaking with the Catalan News Agency during a recent visit to Barcelona, Rudhramoorthy believes that “nobody has the right to decide” on rights, freedoms and Catalan identity. He believes the trial of the independence leaders, which ultimately saw nine politicians and civic leaders sentenced to prison terms of 9-13 years, was an “attack on freedom of expression.”

“The way the Spanish government and Supreme Court has interpreted the legislature, in my opinion, is fundamentally problematic,” he said. The poet believes that the Amnesty International report on the verdict “is a very clear legal statement about why it is wrong.” In addition, Rudhramoorthy believes that Catalonia “has every right to demand equality, justice and autonomy.” “Nobody has the right to say no, that you are not a nation and we will not give you autonomy and self-determination,” he affirmed.