The Spanish Supreme Court rejects amnesty for Puigdemont and maintains the order for his arrest

The Spanish Supreme Court (SC) on Monday refused to grant amnesty to former Catalan pro-independence president Carles Puigdemont and two former collaborators, all of them fled from justice, for misappropriation of public funds and maintains the order that they be arrested as soon as they return to Spain.

In an order, the TS decides not to apply the controversial amnesty law to the independence leaders whom it already tried and disqualified in 2019 from holding public office for embezzlement in relation to the illegal Catalan sovereignty process of 2017, including the former regional vice president of Catalonia Oriol Junqueras.

The crime of embezzlement cannot be pardoned in this procedure, according to the high court, because it falls within the exceptions of the amnesty law, which the Spanish Parliament approved on May 30 for those involved in the secessionist process.

Specifically, they obtained a personal benefit by paying for a ‘self-determination’ referendum, organized on October 1, 2017, with the funds of the Catalan public administration, not with their personal assets, and that “potentially” affected the financial interests of the European Union (EU).

Economic damage to the EU And the Supreme Court has no doubt that both principles are present, which prevent the pardon of the crime of embezzlement for which Puigdemont and his former collaborators from that time in the Catalan regional government, Antoni Comín and Lluis Puig, all of whom fled Spain to avoid the action of the courts, are still being prosecuted.

The order of the Supreme Court and another issued by Judge Pablo Llarena, who investigated the case in the investigation phase, follow the criteria of the prosecutors of the trial for the independence process.

On the contrary, the Attorney General and his superior, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, ordered the amnesty to be applied to all crimes. Llarena claims that the economic damage to the EU occurs because the referendum “necessarily and automatically affected the configuration of Spain and the territorial dimension of the EU.”

The Supreme Court agrees with Llarena’s arguments regarding embezzlement and, therefore, rules out submitting a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the EU on “whether what the national legislator has correctly decided when approving the Amnesty Law is correct, that is, to exclude from any pardon crimes that may affect the financial interests of the Union.”

As for the independence leader Marta Rovira, who is on the run in Switzerland, the judge lifts the arrest order and asks the interested parties to argue that it is appropriate to consult the Constitutional Court on whether the amnesty is applicable to the crime of disobedience.

And there are various appeals against all these decisions. A political agreement between socialists and independentists Sources from the Socialist Party, which promoted the amnesty law in Parliament, disagreed with the arguments of the Supreme Court. The socialist spokesperson Esther Peña said that she does not believe that this will affect possible agreements to form a government in Catalonia, where no force obtained an absolute majority in the elections last May.

Puigdemont, for his part, responded on X with the message “La Toga Nostra”, a veiled allusion to the Sicilian mafia. The amnesty law for those convicted, prosecuted and investigated in connection with the illegal attempt at independence of Catalonia has sparked a heated media and political debate in Spain between the left, in power, and the right, in opposition.

Promoted by the socialists after the general elections of July 2023, it was agreed with the Catalan independence parties, and in particular Puigdemont, who could thus return to Spain free of guilt. It was his demand to support the re-election by Congress of the socialist Pedro Sánchez as head of the Spanish Executive, since he lacked enough deputies for this.

The left and Basque and Catalan nationalists and separatists voted in favour, while the conservatives and far-right opposed the bill. The socialists defend it as a brave step towards coexistence and political normalisation in Catalonia, but the right criticises it as the “political price” that Sánchez pays to remain in power.

And the independence supporters, meanwhile, do not give up on a ‘self-determination’ referendum. The amnesty would apply between November 1, 2011 and November 13, 2023, and would benefit, among others, those responsible for the referendum of October 1, 2017 and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence, both declared unconstitutional.

For these events, nine Catalan independence leaders were sentenced to various prison terms in 2019, while Puigdemont, the main architect of the process, and other colleagues fled.

EFE