End of the political term with a grand finale. The last Council of Ministers before the summer holidays has approved the granting of five pardons. The first is a partial pardon for the former president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Laura Borràs, by which her prison sentence of four years, six months, and one day will be commuted to two years to avoid her imprisonment. The rest of the sentence (fine and disqualification for four years and one day) remains.
The pardon is granted under the terms proposed by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TJSC) itself, which convicted her for splitting contracts and awarding them without a public tender when she presided over the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC) in 2023. However, in the ruling, the court considered the prison sentence to be “disproportionate” and “excessive” and included a request for a partial pardon to the Government to avoid imprisonment. “We consider that the criminal reaction that forces us to impose a custodial sentence of a duration that in no case can be less than four years, six months, and one day is disproportionate and excessive for the reality underlying the behaviors already invariably classified as typical and criminal”, justified the TSJC in the 2023 ruling.
In other words, the court applied the corresponding criminal metric – the formula to apply penalties for a specific crime as set by the Penal Code – but considered that the result (four and a half years in prison) was “excessive.” In this regard, the ruling highlighted that it cannot be inferred from the proven facts that there was any “profit or economic benefit” for any of the three accused, nor any economic harm to the cultural entity. It is worth recalling that the leader was convicted for awarding 18 contracts worth 335,700 euros to a friend at the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes without a public tender.
The ruling found that she committed the crime while heading the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes by awarding contracts without a public tender to a friend, Isaías Herrero, who was also convicted in this case.
This pardon was formally requested in 2025 – after respective appeals and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence – to affect only the time exceeding two years of the imposed sentence of four years, six months, and one day. Additionally, the TSJC agreed to suspend Borràs’s imprisonment until the partial pardon proposal was resolved. “This pardon is requested to affect only the time exceeding two years of the imposed sentence of 4 years, six months, and one day,” clarified the TSJC regarding the request, submitted to the Executive in March 2025. Now, a year and four months later, Pedro Sánchez’s Government complies and approves the grace measure.
On the other hand, the Civil and Criminal Chamber court proceeded to personally require the convicted person to “refrain from carrying out the activities, jobs, or positions for which they have been disqualified” and to “pay the imposed fines” in the order issued last year.
Other pardons
In this end-of-term Council of Ministers, four other pardons have been granted. The second is a partial pardon for the artist and cultural manager Natalio Grueso, sentenced to 8 years in prison, 8 years of disqualification, and a fine. The custodial sentence pending fulfillment is pardoned, and the rest remain.
The pardon, whose request has been promoted by numerous artists and people from the audiovisual sector, responds to humanitarian reasons related to his health condition.
Thirdly, the Government has agreed to partially pardon the former mayor of Linares (Jaén), Juan Fernández Gutiérrez, convicted of receiving extra payments. With this, the imposed prison sentence (three years) is commuted to two years, although the seven-year disqualification remains. The request had the favorable report of the sentencing court, the endorsement of the Popular group and the Socialist group of Linares, the support of the City Council of this town, and that of a neighborhood association that gathered a significant number of signatures in his favor in the municipality.
Finally, the Council of Ministers has approved partial pardons for two more individuals (private citizens, not public officials) convicted of crimes against public health, whose prison sentences of 3 and 4 and a half years will be commuted to two years. Both had favorable reports from the sentencing courts and the public prosecutor’s office.
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