The resolutions of Judge García Castellón, statistically verified, show a balance with an evident tendency to persecute people related to left-wing or pro-independence parties and exonerate prominent leaders of the Popular Party from responsibility. Let each one draw conclusions from it. He has recently joined the crusade against the amnesty law, taking from the trunk of memories what happened on October 14, 2019 at El Prat Airport. It is indisputable that the events deserve the classification of aggravated public disorder, but only by ignoring or twisting the law can they be integrated into a crime of terrorism.
The judge has submitted a reasoned statement to the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, in case there is criminal responsibility of qualified persons (Carles Puigdemont and Marta Rovira), which has taken it into consideration, requesting the opinion of the Public Prosecutor’s Office that had opposed the classification. legal of the facts as a crime of terrorism. We will have to wait for events, but nothing is more clarifying than an examination of the account of events made in the order issued by Judge García Castellón dated January 18, 2024.
It states that as a result of deliberate planning, urged and publicized through its social networks by Democratic Tsunami, there was a massive invasion of people at the Prat Airport that seriously affected air traffic safety. The start time of the events took place at 2:00 p.m. on October 14, 2019, and lasted until 9:00 p.m. on the same day. There was a concentration of numerous protesters in various areas of terminal T1 and land access was cut off in terminals T1 and T2, affecting the mobility of passengers, crews and employees. He then describes the violent actions that occurred, but omits any reference to the death of a passenger from a myocardial infarction.
He ends by reporting that according to a report from the Urban Police, on the day of the day of reflection prior to the general elections of November 10, 2019, there were Democratic Tsunami mobilizations despite the general prohibition of carrying out any political action that day, such as a unreported camping in Plaza Universidad de Barcelona, ??where a stage was set up for musical performances and an unreported rally at Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes 585 attended by 7,000 people. He also remembers that on November 8, 2019, the organization issued a new statement calling for scheduled actions in more than 300 municipalities during the day of reflection. He adds that this call, in addition to having the objective of disobeying the JEC, will mark the first time that the Tsunami app will be used.
It then covers the decision with a legal cloak, invoking a series of European and international regulations, some related to air safety, to classify the facts as a crime of terrorism, broadly equating what happened at the airport and other peaceful gatherings with the actions of ETA, the Red Brigades, the Baader-Meinhof gang or the jihadists. In the legal world there is a debate among specialists about the true concept of what should be understood by terrorism. According to Kai Both, a judge and professor at the University of Göttingen, the defining element of terrorism is the intention to spread terror through violent acts to achieve political ends. We cannot trivialize or extend the label to every act of violence.
But the most extravagant thing, to put it euphemistically, in García Castellón’s Order regarding what happened at the Airport and in other areas, is to consider Democratic Tsunami as a terrorist organization and that the instigators of its actions are Carles Puigdemont and Marta Rovira. Democratic Tsunami was a Catalan independence platform promoted by civil society and political figures to respond to the ruling of the procés trial. Their objectives, as they have stated in interviews and statements, are the freedom of prisoners, exiles and reprisals; the defense of fundamental rights and the self-determination of Catalonia. In a statement following the sentencing of the trial of the leaders of the Catalan independence process, read by Pep Guardiola, a call was made to the international community to clearly position itself for a resolution of the conflict. Guardiola finished reading his presentation to public opinion that he could not be further from any terrorist intention: “In this framework, there is only one way: sit down and talk. “Sit down and talk.” All interlocutors must be aware of the limits set by the Constitution and the Treaties of the European Union.
Joseph Anthony Martin Pallin. He has been a Prosecutor and Magistrate of the Supreme Court.
