Llarena asks the Prosecutor's Office and the Lawyer's Office to rule on whether it is appropriate to reactivate the arrest warrant against Ponsatí

The former counselor and MEP has missed her appointment in the Supreme Court, alleging that today she had a job in the Eurochamber

The instructor of the 'procés', magistrate Pablo Llarena, has given a transfer to the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office so that they rule on the possibility of reactivating the national arrest warrant against the former Catalan counselor and MEP Clara Ponsatí, after has not attended his appointment this Monday at 11:00 a.m. in the Supreme Court (TS), justifying his absence in that on April 24 he had work in the European Parliament.

In a resolution issued this Monday, the Supreme Court magistrate points out that, "considering the provisions of article 487 of the Criminal Procedure Law (LECRIM)", the Prosecutor's Office, the State Attorney's Office and the representation of the popular accusation -exercised by Vox-, for which it gives them a period of five days.

Article 487 of the LECRIM establishes that, "if the person cited, in accordance with the provisions of the previous article, does not appear or justify a legitimate reason that prevents him from doing so, the summons may become an arrest warrant."

Llarena gives those same five days to Ponsatí to provide "documentary justification" for having filed an amparo claim in the European Parliament -claiming her immunity as a European deputy- after being arrested on March 28, one of the reasons that has used by the former counselor not to go to the Supreme Court this Monday.

The magistrate summoned Ponsatí after he appeared in Barcelona on March 28, ignoring his obligation to appear before the Supreme Court so that Llarena could notify him of his prosecution for a crime of disobedience for the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017, take his statement and thus continue with the criminal procedure, paralyzed until then because she was a fugitive in Brussels.

That day, after being detained by the Mossos d'Esquadra and taken before a guard court in Barcelona, ​​by virtue of the national arrest warrant that was in force, Llarena agreed to release her and summon her for this April 24. Now, pending the response of the State Prosecutor and Advocacy, the order could be reactivated, although it would only take effect if Ponsatí returned to Spain.

In this regard, it should be remembered that the judge annulled the European and international search and arrest warrants against Ponsatí and the other fugitives from 1-O, specifying that he could only reactivate them for the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the former advisers Toni Comín and Lluis Puig, because after the penal reform that repealed sedition and modified embezzlement, they were the only ones accused of crimes that entailed jail time.

Legal sources consulted by Europa Press point out that another possible scenario is that, based on the justification given by Ponsatí's defense and what the other parties have raised in these five days, Llarena gives him a second chance by setting a new date for the investigative statement.

STAND-UP TO THE SUPREME

At 11:00 a.m., Ponsatí did not appear before the high court, something that his defense had already advanced in a brief presented shortly before in which he alleges "the notorious fact" that the Industry, Research and Energy commissions and the Affairs Economic and Monetary Committees of the European Parliament, of which Ponsatí is a member, have sessions called today in Brussels, something "incompatible with any commitment of any kind hundreds of kilometers from Brussels."

Ponsatí is a regular member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE), which has a meeting this afternoon starting at 3:00 p.m., and a substitute member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), which resumes its activity after the plenary session last week this Monday from the same time.

In the letter, to which Europa Press has had access, his defense also insists that, "once the procedure to protect the privileges and immunities" of Ponsatí has ​​begun, the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) " obliges the investigating magistrate to suspend the legal proceedings, in accordance with the principle of loyal cooperation", and, consequently, to "render the summons without effect".

To this, the defense adds that "several appeals are pending resolution that corroborate the illegality of this proceeding, the violation of different fundamental rights and that prove that neither the investigating magistrate nor that of this Criminal Chamber of the TS are the previously established court by the law".

His lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, had announced this morning on TV3 that Ponsatí would not appear in the Supreme Court. "I don't know if he's on his way to Brussels or if he's already there," he said. The MEP herself has published a 'tweet' minutes later with some images in which she says: "It rains in Flanders".

BENEFITED BY PENAL REFORM

Ponsatí's criminal horizon cleared up after the entry into force on January 12 of the criminal reform that repealed sedition and modified embezzlement, forcing Llarena to review the prosecution of those fleeing the 'procés'.

Until that moment, the former counselor was prosecuted for sedition, so the disappearance of this crime - punishable by between 10 and 15 years in prison and disqualification - led Llarena to replace it with that of disobedience, punishable with a fine of 3 to 12 months and disqualification from 6 months to 2 years.

Although both the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office requested the investigator to add the new crime of aggravated public disorder, with penalties of 3 to 5 years in prison and 6 to 8 years of disqualification, Llarena rejected it.