The Holiday Chamber of the TC rejects Puigdemont's appeal against his arrest and the Prosecutor's Office requests that it be raised to the Plenary

The Constitutional Court (TC) has inadmissible for processing the appeal filed by the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont and the former Catalan councilor Toni Comín against the arrest warrants issued by the Supreme Court for the crimes of disobedience and embezzlement.

The decision was adopted by the Vacation Chamber of the guarantee body by two votes in favor -those of the magistrates of the conservative wing César Tolosa and Concepción Espejel- and one against -that of the magistrate of the progressive sector Laura Díez-.

As was foreseeable, the reactions of Junts per Catalunya to the Constitutional decision on Puigdemont and Comín have pointed once again to the message about the repression of sovereignism, at a time when nationalist formations are demanding an amnesty to support an investiture of Pedro Sánchez after the elections last july. Thus, the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, has assured through social networks that “for many years the work of the TC has been to decorate a State strategy against the independence movement” and that “this strategy does not close for holidays”.

The president of Junts, Laura Borràs, also stated that “the judicial apparatus acted in the electoral campaign and now it acts thinking about the investiture. they don't fail. They solve in record time, in August.. In Spain there is no separation of powers; in fact, some try to have a synchronization of powers”.

Both Puigdemont and Comín had asked the Constitutional Court to suspend the arrest warrants issued against them in June by Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena.. This magistrate decided to prosecute them for the crimes of disobedience and aggravated embezzlement in the framework of the review that he carried out after the entry into force of the reform of the Penal Code that repealed the crime of sedition. For this reason, he reactivated the arrest warrants in Spain.

The pro-independence leaders appealed Llarena's decision and asked as a precautionary measure that he suspend the orders. However, the TC decided to reject the appeals by justifying the magistrates Concepción Espejel and César Tolosa, from the conservative area, that the request for a precautionary measure caused a certain “hurry” in making the decision, unlike the magistrate, Laura Díez, from the area progressive, who has filed a dissenting vote insisting that the resolution could have come in September. Last June, the Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed Llarena's decision by dismissing the arguments of the defenses -which asked to annul the prosecution- and the popular accusation exercised by Vox -which claimed to apply the crime of aggravated public disorder-.

On that occasion, the high court also endorsed that the examining magistrate issue a national arrest warrant against Puigdemont, considering that if the pro-independence leader did not adopt a “collaborative position with Justice” he should “assume the consequences that failure to appear with him”. Thus, he stressed that the arrest warrants did not imply an “arbitrary action” by the instructor.

Challenge of the Prosecutor's Office

The Prosecutor's Office of the Constitutional Court (TC) will appeal in September the decision of the conservative majority of the Holiday Chamber to reject the amparo appeal filed by the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, against the national arrest warrant issued by the Supreme Court .

This was confirmed by sources from the Public Ministry to Europa Press since they consider that there was no urgency to decide on this appeal request. Thus, they believe that the request by Puigdemont and Comín could have been dealt with in the Constitutional Plenary, which has had a progressive majority since last January, unlike the Holiday Chamber, which has a conservative majority of magistrates.

Precisely, these two judges, César Tolosa and Concepción Espejel, decided to reject the appeal of Puigdemont and Comín regarding the arrest warrant, while the progressive magistrate Laura Díez issued a dissenting opinion, considering that there was no rush to respond to the request of the pro-independence leaders. .