The judge of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, Pablo Llarena, who was the instructor of the main case of the ‘procés’, entered this Tuesday into the open social debate on the future and controversial amnesty law agreed by the PSOE with the Catalan independentists. And he did so by vindicating the principle of equality before the law in cases in which the same behaviors occur.
“A democratic society cannot assume that its members are not equal before the law.” This was expressed during his speech at the delivery of the ‘Golden Scale’ distinction from the Illustrious College of Attorneys of Madrid, which was held at the Royal House of Post Office. This recognition of legal prestige was granted to him for his “extraordinary contribution to the world of justice and the rule of law.”
Before the attendees, among whom were different magistrates from the high court itself, Llarena added that the criminal justice system also “cannot assume that a citizen loses his freedom in cases in which others did not deserve a sanction for the same behavior.” In his opinion, »when the application of the law is deactivated for some« and prison is imposed for other citizens who carry out the same behaviors, »society is presented with doubt and privilege«.
«Disparate and discriminatory responses»
Regarding the work that the courts will have ahead of them with the approval of the controversial amnesty, this Supreme Court judge maintained that judicial action must be governed without deviating from what the law provides. “Otherwise,” he warned, “the law becomes a score with variable chords and only leads to disparate and discriminatory responses,” reports Europa Press.
Following this same line of argument, Llarena emphasized that precisely respect for popular sovereignty “requires” that those who commit a crime submit to the principle of legality and has defended the intervention of judges and magistrates in this sense.
At the event in which the work and professional career of the investigating judge of the ‘procés’ was recognized, an honorable mention was also awarded, posthumously, to the relatives of Ramón Rodríguez Arribas, vice president emeritus of the Constitutional Court. He was previously a judge of the Supreme Court and one of the founders of the Professional Association of Magistrates (APM).
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