The Contentious Chamber agrees by three votes to two to resolve on the merits of the Government’s grace measures and the legitimacy of the parties after the entry into the court of the conservative Inés Huerta
Step change. The Supreme Court has admitted for processing, by three votes to two, the motions for reconsideration filed against the orders of the Chamber that inadmissible in a first instance the briefs presented against the granting of pardons to the prisoners of the ‘procés’.
The change of two magistrates in the court of the Fifth Contentious-Administrative Section, responsible for analyzing the appeals against the decisions of the Executive, has also changed the majorities that once refused to see these appeals due to lack of legitimacy of the parties, among them the political parties PP, Vox or Ciudadanos.
As announced by the high court, the court has estimated all the appeals for reversal except the one filed by the entity Pro Patrimonium Sijena and Jerusalem, which has been unanimously rejected. The decision of the Chamber, therefore, supposes the continuation of the procedures against the granting of pardons by the Government and postpones the final pronouncement on the lack of legitimacy or not of the appellants raised by the Attorney General’s Office until the sentencing process. State, in defense of the interests of the Government.
The full content of the cars will be known in the coming days and will include two private votes. This new decision thus moves away from the previous jurisprudence that supported the power of the Executive when granting the measure of grace, despite having the contrary criterion of the trial court.
Rotations
The change of criteria of the Chamber can only be understood from the variation of the magistrates that make up the Fifth Section with the entry of the conservative magistrate Inés Huerta in substitution of Ángeles Huet, who has tipped the balance in favor of estimating the resources . Huerta has positioned himself with Fernando Román (former Secretary of State for Justice with the PP) and Wenceslao Olea against Octavio Herrero and Ángel Arozamena.
In this way, the court will study the substance of the matter, that is, if the pardons granted to the former vice president of the Generalitat Oriol Junqueras, the former directors Josep Rull, Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa, the former president of the Parliament of Catalonia , Carme Forcadell, and the activists Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sánchez were adjusted to Law.
Regarding the change of magistrates, every six months, since the reform of the appeal (2015), the members of the five sections of the Third Chamber (Contentious-Administrative) of the Supreme Court rotate to form the First Section, called the Admission Chamber of resources, which is responsible for dividing the issues between the various bodies.
This implies the departure of some magistrates from their respective sections and the entry of others who replace them, and, likewise, the redistribution of papers. In the case of the pardon appeals of the ‘procés’, after the rejection of all the writings due to the lack of legitimacy of the parties, the rapporteur magistrate, Ángeles Huet, left, as planned, to leave her place to Inés Huerta, whose vote has now modified the majorities.
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