The Amnesty law that the PSOE has agreed with ERC and Junts covers “all people linked to the process”, as announced by the three parties, which includes former president Carles Puigdemont, whom the Supreme Court now wants to investigate for terrorism, to those involved in the riots after the sentencing.
There are nearly a hundred defendants who could benefit from the Amnesty law, which provides for the erasure of crimes committed during more than a decade of the Catalan independence process, specifically between November 1, 2011.
The latest judicial movements in the cases in which the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont is involved have kept the negotiations to move forward with the law in suspense, given the fear of Junts that the amnesty would not protect the leader of the formation on his criminal fronts. .
In addition to the procés case, in which Puigdemont is accused of a crime of embezzlement punishable by up to 12 years in prison, the Supreme Court decided last week to investigate him for terrorism for his role at the head of the anonymous Tsunami Democràtic platform that he organized in 2019. the protests against the sentence of the process.
In parallel, the judicial scenario has become complicated for the former Catalan president with the investigations into the Volhov case due to contacts with Russia in search of support for the process: Judge Joaquín Aguirre has extended the investigation, with Puigdemont in the spotlight, before some evidence that would open the door to charging him with a crime of high treason.
Together with Puigdemont, due to the altercations in the Tsunami protests, the National Court is investigating the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, who fled to Switzerland, in a case that came to light when the republican leader no longer had outstanding accounts with the Supreme Court. , thanks to the penal reforms that abolished the crime of sedition.
Former councilors Lluís Puig and Toni Comín are still accused of aggravated embezzlement and disobedience in the organization of the process, both of them on the run from Spanish justice and with a national arrest warrant in force.
Former councilor Clara Ponsatí is also being prosecuted, although in her case for a crime of disobedience that does not carry prison sentences, after the Supreme Court eliminated the charge of sedition as a result of the reform of the Penal Code.
The amnesty can lift the disqualification sentences that still weigh on the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, and the former councilor Dolors Bassa -until 2031-, as well as on the former councilors Raül Romeva and Jordi Turull -until 2030-, for the crimes of disobedience and embezzlement that were left pending after the reforms of the Penal Code.
The rest of those convicted by the Supreme Court and later pardoned – Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sánchez, with convictions for the new crime of aggravated public disorder, the former president of the Parliament Carme Forcadell and the former councilors Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull – do not have pending disqualification sentences.
After several years of investigations, the judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón has reactivated the terrorism case that he opened as a result of the massive mobilizations called by Tsunami Democràtic, in October 2019, against the sentence of the process.
In addition to Puigdemont and Marta Rovira, the judge implicates in the organization of the protests ERC deputy in Parliament Ruben Wagensberg – whom the Supreme Court intends to investigate even though he now lives in Switzerland -, as well as Josep Lluís Alay, Puigdemont’s adviser, the adviser of Omnium Oleguer Serra or the entrepreneurs Marta Molina and Josep Campmajó, among other independence activists.
Pending trial are the twelve defendants in the CDR case, accused of crimes of belonging to a terrorist organization – eight of them also for possession and manufacture of explosives and havoc – for which the Prosecutor’s Office is asking them for sentences of between eight and 27 years in prison.
They were arrested in 2019 within the framework of Operation Judas and are accused of belonging to a radicalized faction of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) that allegedly planned sabotage or violent actions in official headquarters in Catalonia in 2019.
On April 10th, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) is expected to start the trial against ERC deputy Josep Maria Jové, one of the leaders with the most weight in the party, the president of the port of Barcelona, ??Lluís Salvadó , and the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, for the organization of the 1-0.
It remains to be seen if the Amnesty law will arrive in time to prevent the trial from beginning against those three ERC charges, accused of crimes of embezzlement, prevarication and disobedience. In fact, the TSJC has already rejected a request for suspension raised by his defense counsel.
Also due to the logistics of the referendum, around thirty businessmen and Government officials are being prosecuted, some of whom -mostly from ERC- face prison sentences, a case still far from reaching trial.
Others prosecuted by the process are the members of the 1-O Electoral Syndicate, among them the Minister of Feminisms, Tània Verge, and the former Junts deputy Josep Pagès. They were acquitted, but a retrial has been ordered.
Outside the criminal sphere, one of the derivatives of the process is being followed in the Court of Accounts, which has an open procedure against 35 former high-ranking officials of the Generalitat, including former presidents Carles Puigdemont and Artur Mas, for the expenses derived from 1-O and its foreign promotion, for which a total of up to 5.3 million euros is required.
The procedure also involves the former vice president of the Generalitat Oriol Junqueras, several former councilors, such as Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, and numerous former senior officials prosecuted in other judicial cases of the process.
The defenses asked to suspend the processing of the file, citing precisely the imminent approval of the Amnesty law, but the Court of Auditors, in accordance with the criteria of the Prosecutor’s Office, ruled it out last January.
The amnesty will allow the cases open to the majority of national police and civil guards investigated for the 1-O charges to be settled: the limit is the crimes of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, which are outside the law.
In Barcelona, ??45 police officers are accused of their “disproportionate” actions to prevent the referendum, without the crimes attributed to them having yet been defined. The same court is prosecuting the activist and former Junts candidate for the Senate Roger Español – who lost an eye from being shot with a rubber ball -, accused of throwing a fence against the police line.
There are dozens of pro-independence protesters prosecuted in Catalonia for the unrest in the protests after the sentencing of the process, in some cases already with sentences that imply their imprisonment.
Among those who can escape prison due to the Amnesty law is Dani Gallardo, the young man from Cadiz who became the first sentenced to prison for attacking a police officer in a protest in Madrid against the 1-O ruling and to whom the Court of Madrid has put a search and capture in order for him to serve the four years imposed.
Also within the limits of the process is the case against former Interior Minister Miquel Buch, sentenced to four and a half years in prison for hiring a Mossos sergeant as an advisor to continue escorting Puigdemont after his escape from Spain.
And that of Josep Lluís Alay, head of Puigdemont’s office, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for three years in prison for paying with public funds for a 2018 trip as an observer of the New Caledonia referendum. In the Volhov case, he is among the main people implicated in the alleged contacts with Russia for the process.
