Carles Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, has opened the door for his client to return to Spain so that the Amnesty law is definitively approved in Congress and published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). Of course, as long as the judges apply the law “correctly”, that is, respecting “the letter and spirit” of the norm and that the national detention orders that “illegally” weigh against them are first lifted.
It is foreseeable that as soon as the Lower House definitively approves the law after it passes through the Senate, the investigating judge of the trial case, Pablo Llarena, will deactivate the national arrest warrant against the former president and pass the case to the president. of the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court that prosecuted her, Manuel Marchena, to decide how to proceed. At that time, this magistrate could submit a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the EU on the rule or file an appeal to the Constitutional Court, or both. In the first case, the amnesty procedure would be suspended until the preliminary ruling is resolved.
Another question is what the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón can do with the Democratic Tsunami case in which he accuses both Puigdemont and the secretary general of the Left, Marta Rovira, of terrorism.
In any case, Boye, in statements to El Món to RAC1, has been optimistic regarding the processing of the Amnesty law and its application despite the fact that Junts, ERC and the PSOE have presented separate amendments. Boye has hoped that politicians will reach an agreement to apply the rule as soon as possible in a serious and legal way so that it includes all those affected without exclusions.
In this sense, Boye has rejected that the law is “stranded” and has indicated that it is simply in process like “all serious legislative processes.” “We are trying to improve the law,” insisted Boye, a participant in the text of the norm, with the aim of “including everyone and for it to withstand the scrutiny of the Constitutional and European Court.”
Regarding the fact that ERC and Junts have not presented joint amendments, the lawyer has considered that it is not a problem “but rather technical discussions” that he has trusted “will be overcome.” The lawyer has also criticized the fact that the PSOE has not considered it necessary to eliminate from the law in the chapter on exclusions, the reference to “the acts classified as terrorist crimes punished in Chapter VII of Title XXII of Book II of the Penal Code, as long as a final judgment has been handed down and they have consisted of the commission of any of the conduct described in article 3 of Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of March 15, 2017.”
“The PSOE has not proposed it as an amendment, but they understand what we are proposing and are aware of it, and I imagine that the politicians will reach an agreement,” indicated the former president’s lawyer about an amendment that both Junts and ERC presented by separately and that what it intends is that none of those prosecuted in the National Court for terrorism, such as those responsible for Tsunami Democràtic or the members of the CDR detained within the framework of Operation Judas in September 2019, be excluded from criminal oblivion. ” “I can’t believe that anyone disagrees with us,” Boye insisted, adding that Junts’ position “was always that the amnesty should include all those affected.”
For the lawyer, “talking about Tsununami as terrorism is a legal aberration and a political judicialization” and what the law intends is precisely to “dejudicialize politics.” In any case, the lawyer has trusted that the politicians will reach “an agreement soon” since, in his opinion, “law is not an exact science but it is a fairly logical science.”
Finally, the lawyer has rejected that the case brought by the National Court against him for money laundering together with the drug trafficker Sito Miñanco is included in the text of the law. “My defense goes through other channels,” he stated, immediately stating that “at no time have there been names on the table or procedural numbers, a general solution has been sought.”
