Supreme Court judge Pablo Llanera, instructor of the procés, has dismissed the request of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont for the application of the Amnesty Law to the acts provisionally classified as the crime of embezzlement of public funds, as a consequence of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on July 16.
Since this request did not succeed, the judge also rejects lifting the national arrest warrant against him, as EL MUNDO had anticipated.
When Llarena rejected amnesty for the embezzlement crime attributed to Puigdemont, he cited two reasons. The first, that the actions of the former president of the Generalitat compromised the financial interests of the European Union – an argument that was dismissed by the CJEU – and the second, because the Law itself excluded amnesty for any appropriation of funds carried out with the purpose of obtaining a patrimonial benefit.
In the order issued now, the judge highlights that the CJEU ruling prevents maintaining the first of the reasons to exclude the application of amnesty, since it has ruled out an impact on the EU’s financial interests derived from the secession of part of the national territory but, however, it does not modify the autonomous basis “related to the purpose of obtaining a personal patrimonial benefit.”
In the order, notified this Tuesday, Llarena emphasizes that the Law that erases the crimes of the procés “does not exclude from amnesty all embezzlement related to the referendum. Its articles 1.1.a), 1.1.b) and 1.4 require examining whether there was the purpose of obtaining a personal patrimonial benefit. This condition was the subject of the tenth basis of the order of July 1, 2024.”
In that order, judge Pablo Llarena argued that Puigdemont and several former ministers had “the ultimate decision over the availability of public funds entrusted to the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia and that they used it to cover the costs inherent to the referendum they themselves wanted to promote. (…) They were the ones who conceived the plan to achieve the independence of Catalonia and adopted a government agreement signed by all of them to assume certain bills from their departments. Consequently, the acts of disposition of the Administration’s assets were radically linked to a personal benefit and had a marked patrimonial character, having allowed the defendants to obtain certain goods and services without diminishing their funds or assets.”
In the hands of the Constitutional Court
This reasoning remains for the judge. “The dismissal is not based on the fact that the European interpretation lacks relevance, but on that its effect does not reach the other reason that supported the denial,” the instructor indicates referring to the personal benefit.
In the resolution, the judge dismisses similar requests made by former minister Antoni Comín. The magistrate explains that, after the Amnesty Law came into force, he issued an order on July 1, 2024, denying its application to embezzlement because he considered it excluded for two reasons: the assessment of a purpose to obtain a personal patrimonial benefit and the consideration that the acts affected the financial interests of the European Union.
With this scenario, the Junts leader now has to wait for the Constitutional Court to rule this autumn on the appeal for protection he has filed against the High Court’s refusal to apply amnesty to embezzlement. The court of guarantees will begin debating the protection appeals of the independence leaders from next September 22.
It will be in this upcoming Plenary when the appeal of former minister Jordi Turull will begin to be deliberated. The rapporteur of this ruling, conservative judge José María Macias, proposes dismissing the appeal but it is highly likely that the progressive majority led by the president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, will prevail in the decision, and therefore, the Constitutional Court will end up protecting the independence leaders. Including Puigdemont.
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