The Magistrate of the Criminal Court Susana Polo has cited the former president of the Generalitat and member of the European Parliament, Carles Puigdemont, and the member of the Catalan Parliament, Rubén Wagensberg, in the open case as being investigated to give a voluntary statement between June 17 and 21 last February for alleged crimes of terrorism in the so-called ‘Democratic Tsunami’ case (TD).
Since they are full, the instructor can only offer a voluntary statement. If they refuse, Polo’s next step should be to send a request to the two parliaments to allow their formal investigation and thus be able to summon them to testify.
This summons comes on the verge of approval of the amnesty law, currently being processed in the Senate. PSOE and Junts have tried to clarify the law as much as possible so that Puigdemont can be amnestied not only for the cause of the pending process but also for this one of TD.
The problem is how Europe is going to interpret the amnesty for the crime of terrorism, so it is foreseeable that once the law returns to Congress and is definitively approved, the Supreme Court will raise a preliminary question before the Court of Justice of the European Union .
Susana Polo was appointed investigator to investigate Puigdemont, Junts candidate for the Catalan elections on May 12, for a crime of terrorism in the TD case referred by the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón. The Criminal Chamber of the high court understood that an investigation should be carried out, despite the report against the Prosecutor’s Office, which after an internal scuffle, a contrary report was delivered when it understood that there were no indications of Puigdemont’s participation in the actions of TD. , nor that these can be considered terrorist actions.
In an order, notified today, the investigating magistrate indicates that the statements will be carried out through videoconference and that those investigated must attend accompanied by a lawyer, once their whereabouts and address are ascertained. To this end, the judge has issued a European Investigation Order (OEI) and/or International Rogatory Commission in criminal matters, through Eurojust.
The magistrate points out that this summons is agreed upon in accordance with the above and in express compliance with the order issued by the Admission Chamber on February 29 when it agreed to open a criminal case against the two accused – Puigdemont and Wagensberg – for terrorism crimes in relation to the facts investigated in the ‘Tsunami Democratic’ case.
The order specifies that the date of the videoconferences has been initially set in that period – between June 17 and 21 – but also specifies that the specific day will be set later, by common agreement between the requesting and requested state.
The Supreme Court agreed to open a criminal case to investigate the former president for terrorism, considering that he had “absolute leadership” over the actions of the platform that encouraged the protests in Catalonia in the fall of 2019.
The court considers that there is a “plurality of evidence” that would demonstrate “the functional mastery of the event, absolute leadership, intellectual authorship and assumption of the reins” by the former president.
For the magistrates in the courtroom, the head of the Generalitat could have avoided actions by Tsunami Democràtic “by withdrawing his charismatic support.” However, far from it, according to the Supreme Court’s statement, he “encouraged them to continue with the violent actions” that were developed “with his knowledge and consent.”
And they adopt the doctrine of the men from behind. “In a criminal organization, the men in the back, who order crimes with autonomous command – being able to avoid it – can, in this case, be responsible as indirect perpetrators, even when the immediate executors are, likewise, punished as fully responsible perpetrators,” they leave. black on white the magistrates.
