The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has agreed to send to court the councilor Natàlia Garriga, for disobedience, and the former high officials of the Government Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó, in their case also for prevarication, embezzlement and disclosure of secrets , for the preparations of 1-O.
This has been confirmed in an order by the civil and criminal chamber of the Catalan high court, after dismissing the appeals of the defendants and confirming the resolutions in which the investigation of the case was terminated and they were prosecuted for their participation in the preparations for the referendum unilateral on October 1, 2017, when they held senior positions in the Ministry of Vice-Presidency and Economy led by Oriol Junqueras.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court has confirmed the sentence of one year of disqualification and a fine of 16,800 euros imposed on the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and current delegate of the Government of the Generalitat in Lleida Bernat Solé, of ERC, for serious disobedience when facilitating the referendum of the 1-O in Agramunt (Lleida) when he was mayor.
The Criminal Chamber has dismissed the appeal filed against the TSJC ruling, which established that Solé disregarded the order of the Constitutional Court (TC) to prevent the illegal referendum of 1-O and participated “actively and resolutely in the development y buen fin” of the referendum, assuming “logistical responsibilities” during voting day.
This is one of the first sentences in which the Supreme Court has reviewed and confirmed the sentence of a former municipal leader for facilitating the 2017 Catalan referendum, suspended by the Constitutional.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, the crime of disobedience “was consummated from the moment” in which Solé, as an authority -he was mayor of Agramunt and deputy in Parliament for ERC-, “openly refused” to fulfill the mandate of the Constitutional .
And although his defense says that he did not breach that provision, the sentence points out that it is “unquestionable” that said resolution “contained a decision and contained an order addressed to authorities as specific as the mayors of all the Catalan municipalities.”
Solé, the Chamber specifies, “externalized” through “specific” actions his refusal to comply with that order, as the Catalan regional court declared proven, and all this -adds the Supreme Court- “is not blurred” by the motivation that led him to do so because, “whatever this was, in no way excludes his conscience and will to do what he did”, enough to be convicted of disobedience.
The court also defended the penalty of disqualification imposed because, it explains, if a public official who has committed the crime of disobedience were allowed access to another from which he could carry out a similar action again, “there would be a risk of making it possible to repeat this criminal conduct”.
This, the Supreme Court concludes, “is a reality” in this case where Solé, “in addition to taking advantage of his status as mayor to commit the crime, used that of a Parliamentary deputy to influence such a commission.”
After hearing the news, the minister and the ERC deputies have spoken on social networks to denounce a “judicial persecution”. “Six years of judicial and sewer persecution. 30 years of pro-independence militancy. More convinced than ever!” Salvadó pointed out.
Jové has also regretted that “repression goes one step further” with this decision, which in his opinion represents “injustice attacking democracy” because “working for a free and socially just country is a noble cause and a right, and we will continue fighting thus”.
For her part, Minister Garriga remarked that “no matter how much the State continues with this persecution, we will never stop working for a complete and free country.”
