Today, the Congress of Deputies is expected to approve the amnesty that Pedro Sánchez had branded as “unconstitutional” but which he finally negotiated with Carles Puigdemont to obtain in exchange the seven votes of Junts that he needed to be able to go to the presidential investiture after losing the elections on 23 July 2023.
It is very possible that any of the judges who are forced to apply it in any of the open cases will raise a preliminary question of legality before the European Court of Justice, which would suspend its application for at least two or three years, according to jurists.
For this reason, pro-independence organisations and groups are pushing for an express application of this amnesty, while ERC and Junts applaud the criminal oblivion of the pro-Crime and demand that Pedro Sánchez address the referendum as the next step in his roadmap. Yesterday, according to the newspaper El Mundo, on the eve of its approval in Congress, Alerta Solidària announced that it will ask that the law be applied to 419 demonstrators and activists, not counting those politically responsible for 1-O (the unconstitutional referendum held on October 1st 2017), including Carles Puigdemont and those convicted by the Supreme Court and pardoned by the Government.
The count of the organisation, which defends dozens of accused pro-independence activists, excludes politicians and public workers, and does include the 12 members of the CDRs (Committees for the Defence of the Republic) prosecuted for terrorism in Operation Judas pending trial and 10 of those also investigated for terrorism in the case of Tsunami Democràtic. In other words, it does not include Puigdemont or Marta Rovira (ERC), who will be prosecuted as politicians and not as “activists”, the organisation explained. Nor members of the administration or workers under the orders of regional or municipal governments.
According to its calculations, 1,168 people have been judicially investigated for protests and demonstrations related to the pro-independence process and the 1-O ruling. 597 were dismissed and 152 were acquitted (27%). The rest are the 419 for whom Solidarity Alert will ask for amnesty: the case is still in the investigation phase in 143 cases, 127 are awaiting trial, 12 are awaiting sentencing and 137 have already been sentenced.
