Puigdemont asks the Supreme Court to correct Llarena and deactivate the national arrest warrant

The defense of the former Catalan president has filed an appeal before the Criminal Chamber

MADRID, 30 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former president of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont has asked the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court to correct the decision of magistrate Pablo Llarena to prosecute him for crimes of disobedience and aggravated embezzlement and to deactivate the national arrest warrant that he issued last January, considering that this it is neither for a "legitimate purpose" nor is it proportionate.

"The political instrumentalization carried out by the investigating magistrate of the arrest warrants (...) reveals the true objective of this process," says the defense of the pro-independence leader, who has been on the run from the Spanish Justice since 2017.

In his opinion, these orders are intended to "disturb" his exercise of the position of deputy of the European Parliament, "as before he used the same procedure to disturb the exercise of the position of deputy of the Parliament of Catalonia".

In the appeal, to which Europa Press has had access, Puigdemont's defense claims that the national search, capture, arrest and imprisonment order be annulled and that it be declared that the rights of the former Catalan president were violated.

He requests that, in the event that his request is not upheld, a battery of questions for a preliminary ruling be sent to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU): among others, to ask whether the Supreme Court (TS) is the competent body to bring a case against an MEP, as is the case of Puigdemont, who enjoys immunity as a member of the European Parliament.

"It is important to remember that we are faced with the obligation, in accordance with article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to raise them in order not to deprive, once again, my client of the right to a judge predetermined by Law that, in In this case and regarding these issues, it is none other than the Court of Justice of the European Union", says lawyer Gonzalo Boye.

In line, the defense stresses that "since the reform carried out in the Penal Code last December, it is evident that the penological scope of the accused crime has been modified and, therefore, it must be, equally, the channel procedural chosen for the persecution" by Puigdemont.

The lawyer for the 'ex-president' sees "clear" that the arrest warrants issued by order of January 12, 2023 "are intended to obtain a result that neither responds to a legitimate objective nor, in any case, is proportionate, in the limitation that it would imply of the right to political representation, but also of the right to freedom, including freedom of movement".

In addition, it emphasizes that "the fundamental right that has been violated by the examining magistrate is not only that of political participation, but also the rights referred to in the (...) opinions of the Working Group on the Arbitrary Detention of United Nations, as well as the correlatives of the Constitution, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, as well as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms".

The 'procés' instructor had to review the prosecution by 1-O of Puigdemont, the former councilors Toni Comín, Lluis Puig and Clara Ponsatí, and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, as a result of the reform of the Penal Code (CP ) that eliminated the crime of sedition, modified that of embezzlement and created one of aggravated public disorder.

In a first resolution on January 12, Llarena agreed to prosecute the former president for a crime of disobedience --in substitution of the missing sedition-- and one of aggravated embezzlement. In response, both the Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney appealed to urge him to add a third crime: aggravated public disorder. Puigdemont's defense, for its part, asked to annul the arrest warrant and accused the judge of "ignoring" the penal reform.

On March 21, the TS magistrate rejected all the appeals for reform --of accusations and defenses-- to confirm the prosecution of Puigdemont, Comín and Puig for disobedience and embezzlement, and that of Ponsatí and Rovira for disobedience.

Puigdemont's defense is now directed against this last resolution. The tax and government sources consulted confirm to Europa Press that this will not be the case with the Public Prosecutor's Office or the State Attorney's Office, which have chosen not to raise the matter to the Criminal Chamber.

The appeals that are presented will go to the Second Chamber, without the six magistrates who made up the court that judged the cause of the 'procés' and who sentenced the former vice president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Oriol being able to form part of this decision. Junqueras to 13 years in prison and disqualification.

It should be remembered that the court of the 'procés', which also had to review its sentence in light of the new Penal Code, agreed to sentence the pro-independence leaders who had been convicted of sedition and embezzlement for disobedience and aggravated embezzlement, also ruling out disorders aggravated publics.