The General Court of the European Union (TGUE) will arbitrate today between the Supreme Court and Carles Puigdemont. Since 2017, the Spanish justice system has been trying to get the former Catalan president to face the cause of the process for which twelve other pro-independence leaders have already been convicted, sent to prison and later pardoned by the Government as a result of an attempt to defuse the political situation in Catalonia. .
Throughout this morning, the TGUE will communicate its sentence to respond to two demands from the Junts leader to prevent its delivery to Spain. His greatest asset is clinging to his status as an MEP which, in his opinion, grants him immunity to avoid prosecution.
The TGUE must rule on two aspects that have paralyzed the delivery of Puigdemont to the Spanish justice, which has been demanding him since he fled in October 2017 after the failed unilateral declaration of independence. On the one hand, it must decide on the lifting of immunity by the European Parliament, at the request of the investigating judge of the process Pablo Llarena, in order to demand the delivery of him to Spain, as he is an MEP. And on the other hand, to rule on whether the procedures that were carried out to grant the request regarding Puigdemont to open criminal proceedings for sedition were correct.
The magistrate who has investigated the case in the Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, has defended throughout these years that Puigdemont cannot rely on such parliamentary immunity because this concession is planned so as not to persecute a European parliamentarian during his function. However, in the case of the pro-independence leader it was the other way around because, according to the instructor, Puigdemont obtained the MEP certificate after being prosecuted for the crime of rebellion. For Llarena there is no doubt that his MEP act was a maneuver by the former president of the Generalitat to avoid being prosecuted.
That said, this matter is becoming more and more convoluted due to the setbacks that the Supreme Court is suffering from Europe. Countries like Germany, Belgium or Italy have turned their backs on the Spanish justice system and have refused to hand over Puigdemont to be tried for rebellion or sedition.
The situation reached such a point that Llarena himself raised a question for a preliminary ruling to respond to Belgium’s position, which showed many objections to handing over Puigdemont. In fact, in a resolution he came to question the competence of the Supreme Court to try another of the ex-ministers on the run, Lluis Puig.
Despite these clashes, the Spanish judiciary did receive the support of the European Parliament, which accepted the request requested by the Supreme Court, allowing the judiciary to initiate criminal proceedings against the pro-independence MEP. It also approved the lifting of immunity, which opened the ban for its delivery to the Spanish authorities.
However, Puigdemont’s defense has been using all the legal tools at its disposal and claimed precautionary measures to recover immunity until the TGUE ruled on the scope of its demands against the decisions of the European Parliament.
Granted these measures, Llarena has deactivated the European arrest warrant against Puigdemont and Toni Comin until there is a clear position from Europe. In the midst of this mess, the Government promoted the repeal of the crime of sedition, which has forced Llarena to modify the indictment and change to the crime of embezzlement of public funds aggravated by using funds for the organization of the referendum on October 1 of 2017, as well as another crime of disobedience for not complying with the orders of the Constitutional Court.
Puigdemont’s defense maintains that having changed the crimes, the European Parliament would be obliged to grant a new petition, which would further lengthen the already tangled judicial situation.
For the Supreme Court, the request granted is valid because the embezzlement was already included in a mediation contest and disobedience was incorporated into sedition as one of the acts committed. The position of the TGUE could mark the next position of the Belgian justice, although since the sentence is appealable before the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is foreseeable that there will not be a definitive movement in the short term.
The defense of the former president and former minister Toni Comín alleges that Parliament failed to comply with its obligation to give reasons “sufficiently and adequately.” In addition to the violation of various rights, he reiterates that it is a “political persecution against the Catalan independence leaders.”
