The president of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court rules out clarifying the sentence to the president of Congress and orders her to execute her to remove the seat from the United We can deputy
There is nothing to clarify, there is no error in the sentence and the disqualification is “mandatory”. Manuel Marchena, president of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, has settled on Friday any attempt to delay the execution of the sentence of the United Podemos deputy Alberto Rodríguez, which entails his loss of the seat despite the contrary report of the Congress lawyers.
Marchena answered this Friday to the president of the Lower House, Meritxell Batet, that the task of the high court “is not to advise other constitutional bodies about the terms of execution of an already final sentence.” The magistrate has ruled out any confusion in the ruling and has indicated that the special disqualification for the exercise of the right of passive suffrage is a mandatory penalty. This is required by this provision -article 56.1.2 of the Penal Code- when a custodial sentence is imposed, “as has happened in the present case”, despite the accessory of the fine (540 euros).
Batet decided this Thursday to request the Supreme Court to clarify the scope of the punishment for a crime of attack on the authority that the Second Chamber (of Criminal Matters) imposed on the former secretary of the United We Can Organization. It has done so two days after the PSOE and the confederal group, which make up the majority of this body, concluded that this sentence did not imply having to leave the Canarian parliamentarian without a seat after the report requested from the Congress lawyers.
Next steps
Marchena now recalls that the defense of the parliamentarian was already informed on October 14 that there was no place for the cancellation of the disqualification penalty, that there was no error and that the prison sentence – which ultimately leads to loss of the seat- “is the punitive outcome associated with the conduct that is declared proven, without prejudice to the fact that for the purposes of its execution it has been agreed to replace it with a fine.”
The lawyers of the Chamber, on the other hand, interpreted that the prison was not executed when the deputy paid the fine (540 euros), so that the first had no effect on the loss of the seat. Now, Batet is obliged to move the card, summon the Board of Congress and proceed with the execution of the sentence if she does not want her actions to have criminal consequences in the form of a crime of disobedience.
After knowing Marchena’s writing, and echoing it in his social network profile, the president of the PP, Pablo Casado, has demanded that Batet “immediately disqualify” the deputy and has stressed that “all Spaniards” are “obliged to comply with the law “and” the left must respect “the separation of powers.
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