Borràs appeals his sentence to the Supreme Court alleging political persecution for being an independentist

The suspended president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, has appealed to the Supreme Court against her conviction for prevarication and document falsification, citing, among other reasons, political persecution for her beliefs in independence and the lack of impartiality of the court that tried her.

The defense of the also leader of Junts, exercised by the lawyer Gonzalo Boye, has presented this Thursday an appeal against the sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) of last March 29 that sentenced her to four and a half years of prison and another thirteen of disqualification for awarding contracts by hand when he directed the Institute of Catalan Letters (ILC), and requests that an acquittal be issued.

In the cassation appeal, of almost 200 pages and to which EFE has had access, Borràs' legal team alleges that “everything that happened” in this judicial proceeding against the former president of Parliament “is not accidental nor is it deprived of political intention”. since, says the text, this is part of a “convulsive context” after the independence referendum on October 1, 2017, suspended by the Constitutional Court.

In this sense, the appeal maintains that Borràs has been subjected to a “prospective” investigation for “his political leadership and his affiliation to the independence cause”.

In this context of “political persecution”, the appeal indicates that there are “a large number of charges and pro-independence leaders” also accused of different crimes such as “embezzlement, prevarication, disobedience, terrorism…” for the “simple fact of being “.

Borràs's defense also argues that Borràs' right to have an impartial judge has been violated due, says the appeal, to the “lack of impartiality” of the president of the TSJC, Jesús María Barrientos, who “did not keep” the ” necessary equidistance” when presiding over the court that tried the former president of Parliament.

Thus, the appeal includes several public demonstrations made by Barrientos against the procés that, for the defense of Borràs, detract from “impartiality”: “We have seen how he has shown himself to be especially combative with everything that represents the desire for independence,” concludes the text of the appeal.

Another reasoning that Borràs' defense alleges is that his right to a predetermined judge by law has been violated, since the TSJC “could not arrogate the competence” to judge the former president of Parliament.

The appeal recalls that Borràs was suspended from her position as president of the Catalan chamber in July 2022, thus losing her status as a registered office, for which reason for the defense “it is not equitable, fair or adequate to demand that she suspend all her prerogatives “. “It was not a whim or will on the part of the MHP Doña Laura Borrás to stop being registered, but rather it was an imposition,” he adds..

Thus, the appeal concludes that the High Court of Justice of Catalonia “should not have, extensively, arrogated to itself the competence to prosecute our defendant who, as we say, is suspended from her rights and obligations.”

The appeal concludes that the High Court of Justice of Catalonia “should not have, extensively, arrogated to itself the competence to prosecute our defendant who, as we say, is suspended from her rights and obligations.

The appeal also denounces a material defencelessness caused by the fact that the defenses of the other two defendants during the trial reached an agreement with the prosecution consisting of incriminating their defendant.