Llarena ends the investigation for disobedience against Ponsatí after taking a statement

MADRID, 25 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The instructor of the 'procés', the Supreme Court (TS) magistrate Pablo Llarena, has issued a summary order regarding the former Catalan counselor and MEP of Junts Clara Ponsatí, to whom he attributes a crime of disobedience for 1-O, after her statement was taken in Barcelona after being arrested.

The judge points out that, once this procedure is completed, he does not consider any further investigation necessary, so he puts an end to the investigations and refers them to the Criminal Chamber, which will be the one who decides the next steps.

Ponsatí was arrested on Monday after she herself announced on her social networks that she was in Barcelona, ​​despite the national search and arrest warrant against her.

Llarena agreed that the Court of Duty of Barcelona would be the one to take her statement to notify her of her prosecution for disobedience and thus be able to continue the criminal proceedings against her.

The former counselor accepted her right not to testify, after which she was released, as the instructor of the 'procés' had arranged, although with the imposition of designating an address in Spain to receive judicial notifications.

This is the second time that Ponsatí has ​​been arrested in Barcelona by order of the Supreme Court. She already was on March 28 and then she was released with the obligation to go to testify before Llarena on April 24, but she was absent alleging, first, that she had a job in the European Parliament and, second, that she was protected by her immunity as an MEP.

After this sit-in, the instructor once again issued a national search and capture order against Ponsatí with the sole objective of being able to notify him of his prosecution for a crime of disobedience and thus continue the criminal proceedings against him, who until last March was paralyzed for being a fugitive in Brussels.

Llarena ruled that he had missed his appointment with the Supreme Court "unjustifiably", considering that formulas could have been sought for him to appear even from Strasbourg; while the second question raised by Ponsatí was answered by the General Court of the EU (TGUE) on July 5 by lifting the immunity that the former counselor, also former counselor Toni Comín and former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont retained as a precautionary measure.

In this way, the TGUE cleared the way for Llarena, at the request of the prosecutors of the 'procés', to reactivate the Euro-orders against Puigdemont and Comín. However, in the case of Ponsatí it is no longer possible because she has been prosecuted for a crime without jail.

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 then, 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 the magistrate 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 ruled it out.

Thus, the legal sources consulted by Europa Press indicate that the path to be followed by Ponsatí is similar to the one followed before the Supreme Court by the former deputy of the CUP in Parliament Anna Gabriel and the former Catalan counselor Meritxell Serret. After returning from Switzerland and Belgium, respectively, they gave a statement to Llarena and he released them to later end the investigation and proceed to trial.