The Government maintained in the reports of the 1-O pardons that the amnesty is "clearly unconstitutional"

The Government of Pedro Sánchez had no doubts until recently that the amnesty is “clearly unconstitutional”. This was expressly stated in the reports with which the Executive pardoned those sentenced to prison terms in the trial of the process.

He did so in the common part of the nine reports that justify the granting of the pardon measures, in which it can be read: “Unlike the amnesty, clearly unconstitutional, which is demanded by some pro-independence sectors, the pardon does not make the the crime”.

The phrase is signed by the then Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, whose pardon proposals were approved by the Executive in the Council of Ministers on June 22, 2021..

The extensive reports on each convict – around 30 pages – included references to the characteristics of the figures of pardon (authorized by the Constitution), general pardon (expressly prohibited) and amnesty (not expressly mentioned).. And he pointed out the differences between them, highlighting that the pardon, compared to the amnesty, did not go so far as to seek the elimination of the crime itself.

In the report of the former vice president of the Government, for example, it reads: “It must be emphasized that Mr. Oriol Junqueras i Vies has already served three years and seven months of his prison sentence.. An effect of the sentence that neither can nor is intended to be erased. The granting of pardon will bring with it the consequence typical of any particular pardon, that is, that of excluding compliance with the pardoned or commuted sentence, but with the persistence of the crime.. Persistence that, in the event of repeated crime, would lead to the assessment of the criminal record. Unlike the amnesty, clearly unconstitutional, that is demanded by some pro-independence sectors, the pardon does not make the crime disappear.”

What is collected in the pardon files represents the most in-depth legal analysis of the pardon measures that the Government has addressed today in office.. In express rejection of the constitutionality of the amnesty that is now planned to be granted to those affected by the process, it joins other interventions contrary to the amnesty.

Significantly, that of Sánchez himself a few days before the 23-J elections. “The independence movement asked for amnesty, asks for a self-determination referendum. “They have not had an amnesty, there is no self-determination referendum nor will there be one.”

Also the Minister of the Interior, Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stated not long ago that “amnesty is not recognized in our legal system.” And Minister María Jesús Montero, that “pardons are constitutional, the referendum is not, nor is the amnesty.”