The judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón will not accept no for an answer from, who has exposed a series of impediments to not collaborating in the open investigation for terrorism due to the Democratic Tsunami. In just 24 hours, the instructor has answered what the Swiss authorities raise, despite the fact that some of the questions are “inadmissible” in the eyes of the judge.
The Swiss suggest possible political motivations in the investigation on the Tsunami Democràtic (TD) platform for the riots in Catalonia after the judgment of the process, in October 2019. In addition, they fear that the collaboration demanded regarding the whereabouts of the secretary general of ERC, Marta Rovira, no longer makes sense if the Amnesty law is approved, as they recognize that they have read in the press.
García-Castellón has issued a harsh warning to Switzerland: the international treaties signed by the two countries prohibit rejecting the request for judicial assistance based on political reasons when it is a crime of terrorism, as is the case here.
In addition, he reminds them that in Spain, as well as in the democracies of the European Union, the judicial power “is a power separate and independent from the legislature and the executive and that, therefore, it is not the function of the judges to make laws or to participate in its drafting, just as it is not for the legislator or the executive to interfere in the function of judging, qualifying or sentencing”. The magistrate finds it “curious” and “inadmissible” that the Swiss authorities are asking the Spanish judiciary about a law that has not even been approved and is still in parliamentary processing. It is not known what the final text will be, whether it will be approved or the scope. Until it is published in the BOE, it does not exist for legal purposes.
García-Castellón says that he “doesn’t know” anything to do with the amnesty and he also doesn’t understand “what interest it can have for those who attend to a request of a jurisdictional nature to question about a hypothetical unapproved rule”. This magistrate reactivated the cause of TD in full negotiations between the PSOE and the pro-independence parties to present an amnesty. The judge sent the Swiss authorities a rogatory commission to help him locate Rovira’s address in Switzerland, after her imputation pointing to her as the political coordinator of this platform. This case has become a sticking point for Junts and ERC because the crime being prosecuted is that of terrorism and, therefore, could be excluded from the amnesty.
In fact, the magistrate believes that there are also indications to investigate the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, but this imputation should be made by the Supreme Court because he is covered by the status of MEP.
Since the case has been reactivated, García-Castellón has been the focus of all criticism from a political sector, and he has been directly accused of being part of the lawfare. These days, a talk by the magistrate at the Forum of the Region in October of last year has already begun to circulate in which he acknowledged that he lied to his French colleagues so that they would cooperate with crucial information that Spain needed in the fight against ETA.
The president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Vicente Guilarte, spoke yesterday about the lack of cooperation from Switzerland, who found an explanation in the fact that Spain did not agree to hand over to the Swiss justice the former employee of the ‘HSBC Hervé Falciani, for an alleged crime of revealing bank secrets.
