Madrid
08/09/2023 a las 07:51
CEST
The high court always has the option of raising a question of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional Court and a question for a preliminary ruling before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
the supreme court will have no choice but to apply an amnesty law in the terms in which it is finally promulgated, in the same way that he had to declare sedition repealed after the penal reform agreed between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and ERC. This meant that the sentence of the ‘procés’, issued in October 2019, was modified and that the prosecution of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont was limited to a crime of embezzlement of funds, albeit in its most serious form.
However, despite applying the new law, as soon as it is in force, the high court always has the option of raising a question of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional and one preliminary ruling before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE), if you have any doubts about whether the new rule exceeds the Magna Carta.
Neither of the two mechanisms are suspensivewhich means that if an amnesty law is passed to put an end to all the open procedures in relation to the ‘procés’ and settle the pending accounts with the justice of those already convicted, magistrate Pablo Llarena will have to agree on it, regarding of those who have fled from Spanish justice, Puigdemont and the ‘ex-consellers’ Toni Comín and Lluís Puigand the court that tried the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, and the rest of independence leaders condemned by the 1-O. These same steps will have to be carried out by the rest of the courts, both in Catalonia and in the National Court, that have cases related to the referendum until then considered illegal.
Once the judges annul the open procedures in relation to the ‘procés’, depending on the concretion of what was finally amnestied, they will also be able to raise their doubts about its constitutionality to the Constitutional Court. In your case, you can also raise a question for a preliminary ruling before the CJEU, as Llarena already did with the Euro-orders, when Belgium denied the delivery to Spain of Puig when appreciating hypothetical violations of their rights in the Spanish claim.
Embezzlement and disorder
Legal sources consider that it will be interesting to see what the European courts decide on an amnesty that in the case of the main defendants -those who fled from Spanish justice, but also those convicted by the Supreme Court- refers exclusively to a crime of embezzlement of public fundswhich is among those included in the range that makes up those of corruption, whose persecution has been accentuated throughout Europe.
In most of the procedures opened in Catalonia by the ‘procés’, the crime investigated is that of public disorder due to what happened in the protests that followed the announcement of the sentence of up to 13 years in prison for the pro-independence leaders and, specifically, Junqueras. After being pardoned and despite the repeal of sedition, the president of this formation continues to serve the sentence of disqualification imposed, since the court did not understand it necessary to modify it, because the sentence was for the most serious crime of embezzlement. In his case, the amnesty would mean being able to return to active politics and be able to contest the next elections.
The circumstance arises that the Contentious Chamber of the high court will begin to review the measure of grace that the Government of Sánchez granted to him and the rest of the convicts on the 14th. It will begin with those filed by Vox and Cs against the of the sovereign leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixartsources from the high court confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO, from the Prensa Ibérica group.
2023-09-08 06:22:35
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