Spanish court applies amnesty law for first time to Catalan separatists

2 months ago 11

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia on Tuesday applied for the first time the controversial amnesty law to two Catalan separatist activists convicted of actions committed between 2012 and 2023 relating to the bid for the independence of Catalonia.

Among the separatist activists granted amnesty on Tuesday were former Catalan government (Generalitat) interior regional minister (conseller) Miquel Buch and a former security escort for separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

The decision, the first of its kind after the extraordinary pardon rule came into force, was made by members of the TSJC’s appeals chamber, which met to deliberate on applying it to several court cases linked to actions by members of the separatist movement including the serious secessionist attempt in October 2017.

Buch had been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for embezzlement and prevarication and 20 years of disqualification for hiring a former sergeant of the Catalan regional police (Mossos d’Esquadra) as an advisor to continue providing police protection to Puigdemont.

Burch’s lawyers asked the Catalan high court to grant him amnesty on the grounds he did not profit from his former job as Puigdemont’s bodyguard and that, as such, his case was covered by the amnesty.

The court ruled in favour of the individuals, extinguishing the criminal and civil liability for both Buch and Puigdemont’s former bodyguard, along with their criminal records.

The former Catalan president went into self-exile in Waterloo, near Brussels, in October 2017 until last April when he settled in the south of France. He now plans to return to Spain, due to the amnesty.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), has repeatedly said that the amnesty law is a key element in achieving “reconciliation” between the central state and Catalonia.

Partido Popular (PP/EPP), the main opposition force, and the far-right VOX party, the third force in parliament, consider that the law violates the Spanish Constitution (of 1978) and call it “blackmail” by Catalan separatists.

Sánchez has made concessions to the two main Catalan separatist parties, the centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxCat), led by Puigdemont, and its left-wing rival Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), in exchange for parliamentary support from both parties to remain in power.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)