More than a journey, the journey that the Amnesty law is taking is an adventure. The Government is offering Junts, as reported by La Vanguardia, a new way to approve a rule that was stranded on Tuesday: leaving mentions of terrorism without altering the current wording of the law and subsequently reforming this crime in the Penal Code. so that those investigated by Tsunami Democràtic and the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) can benefit from the amnesty. But this solution does not please a third actor: ERC. Pere Aragonès is not in favor of reforming the crime of terrorism. because this mechanism would introduce “more risk” and could have “unforeseen consequences” for the independence movement.
The president has expressed himself in this way in statements to Efe. The reform of the Penal Code is a proposal that the former leader of Unidas Podemos in Congress and Sumar negotiator, Jaume Asens, put on the table, because the way terrorism is worded in the CP “allows many interpretations” due to its definition. “ambiguous.” But it is an “intermediate point”, as Asens described it, that does not please the head of the Government.
“The problem is not the crime of terrorism in the Penal Code, the problem is not the wording of the amnesty law. The problem is the arbitrary use being made of the judicial investigation by two judges clearly politically aligned with the extreme right and the Spanish right,” he stressed.
Aragonès’ statements occur in a context in which the pragmatic positioning of the Republicans is not being rewarded, in the opinion of ERC, by the PSOE. Those of Oriol Junqueras voted in Congress in favor of the Amnesty law. He declined due to JxCat’s refusal, which caused the opinion to return to the Justice commission to re-analyze the proposal. Esquerra warned on the same day of the risks that, in his opinion, this reversal entails. Today, Aragonès has warned of the same if the crime of terrorism is to be modified. “I think we should focus on how we do it within the framework of the amnesty law,” he stated.
All these movements are explained by the performance of the judges Manuel García-Castellón and Joaquín Aguirre. The first, from the National Court, investigates Tsunami for terrorism crimes. Carles Puigdemont and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, would be involved, among others, such as Ruben Wagensberg, who has traveled to Switzerland “for fear” of being arrested and to prepare his defense. The second, from the investigating court number 1 of Barcelona, ??has reactivated the Voloh case, according to which Puigdemont’s entourage would have maintained contacts with Putin’s Russia to guarantee the independence of Catalonia. A Russian plot in which the judge considers that it could be framed in the crime of high treason.
Precisely because of this last crime, Junts also refused to vote in favor of the Amnesty law.
However, and despite the fact that ERC maintains a live amendment by which the concept of terrorism would be eliminated from the Amnesty law, the president of the Generalitat believes that the norm “is robust” and “does not need any amendment.”
Even so, as long as there is time, “you can always explore whether there may be some type of improvement or different wording that allows the agreement that was not possible on Tuesday to be possible later,” he noted.
