The main beneficiaries of the amnesty are politicians from the 'procés', the CDR, 'Tsunami' and the police from 1-O

The rule also includes Puigdemont's chief of staff or the former Catalan Interior Minister

MADRID, 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The bill to amnesty the Catalan independence movement would benefit the leaders of the 'procés', the 12 members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) prosecuted for a crime of belonging to a terrorist organization, the 10 prosecuted for the riots allegedly promoted by Tsunami Democrátic after the convictions for the 'procés' in the fall of 2019 or the police officers prosecuted for their actions during the celebration of the illegal referendum in 2017.

The rule would also cover Josep Lluís Alay, the chief of staff of the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the former Minister of the Interior of the Catalan Generalitat Miquel Buch.

This is stated in the text, which limits the amnesty to a temporal context that includes from January 1, 2012, "the year in which the events of the independence process began to take place", and this November 13, 2023.

In addition to the time frame, the proposal delimits the crimes that will be amnestied, which include usurpation of public functions, embezzlement, disobedience, public disorder and prevarication.

As planned within the framework of the negotiations in recent weeks for an investiture and eventual formation of a Government, the proposal would benefit the leaders of the 'procés', both those who are already convicted and those who remain prosecuted in rebellion and escape from justice.

The text does not expressly mention their names, but the measure would include the former vice president of the Generalitat Oriol Junqueras and the former councilors Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa, who were pardoned but remain disqualified for crimes of disobedience and embezzlement after the Court Supreme Court will review their sentences as a result of the reform that eliminated sedition and modified embezzlement.

It would also affect the leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart - convicted of public disorder after the reform -, the former president of the Parliament Carmen Forcadell and the former councilors Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn - convicted of disobedience once the new Penal Code was applied - -, although in their cases their disqualification sentences have already been extinguished and their prison sentences have been pardoned.

Regarding the fled independentists, the amnesty would benefit the former Catalan president and leader of Junts Carles Puigdemont and the former councilors Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, who are subject to a national arrest warrant for crimes of disobedience and embezzlement.

The text in turn would have an impact on the case of the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, who remains in Switzerland being prosecuted for a crime of disobedience after the reform that repealed sedition, and against whom there is also a national arrest warrant. The former counselor and MEP of Junts Clara Ponsatí, prosecuted for disobedience, would also benefit.

The rule would leave without an oral trial the 12 members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) prosecuted for a crime of belonging to a terrorist organization who, according to the National Court, planned to occupy the Parliament of Catalonia and who participated in the cuts. roads or lifting of toll barriers.

Also within the National Court, the amnesty would cover the 10 investigated for the riots allegedly organized by Tsunami Democràtic after the convictions for the 'procés' in 2019, and which ranged from the attempted assault of the El Prat airport, to cut of the Jonquera border or the repeated protests with barricades in front of the Police Headquarters in Vía Layetana.

The law explains that only "acts classified as terrorist crimes punishable in Chapter VII of Title XXII of the Penal Code are excluded from the amnesty as long as a final sentence has been handed down." It should be remembered that the CDR case is pending trial and the Tsunami case is still under investigation, so there has been no ruling in either case.

The amnesty covers "acts of disobedience, whatever their nature, public disorder, attacks against authority, its agents and public officials, resistance or other acts against public order and peace that have been carried out with the purpose of showing support for the objectives" of the independence movement or "for those prosecuted or convicted for the execution of any of the crimes" amnestied.

Within the framework of the Tsunami case, the judge has charged Rovira, the former ERC councilor Xavier Vendrell and Alay himself and has directed his investigations against Puigdemont, to whom he has offered the possibility of appearing voluntarily because in order to charge him he must first collect the permission of the European Parliament, of which he is a part and for which he enjoys immunity, and of the Supreme Court, before which he is qualified.

Alay and Vendrell themselves are also under investigation in a Barcelona Court for 'Voloh', the case in which the alleged diversion of public funds to the independence movement is investigated.

Likewise, the law would exempt from responsibility the 45 National Police agents who were prosecuted last January by the Investigative Court Number 7 of Barcelona for the 1-O charges in the city.

Likewise, the text would extend to the sentence of four and a half years in prison that was imposed on former Minister of the Interior Miquel Buch for appointing the police officer Lluís Escolà as a position of trust to escort Puigdemont abroad after the application of the article. 155 of the Constitution. In addition to the prison sentence, it would also impact the 20-year disqualification sentence that was handed down to Buch for crimes of embezzlement and prevarication.

The rule would not only benefit the former councilor, but in turn the Mosso who acted as an escort for the former president and who was sentenced to four years in prison and 10 years of disqualification for the crime of embezzlement.

The proposal also contemplates the procedure followed against 35 former senior Catalan officials prosecuted in the Court of Accounts (TCu) for the accounting liability derived from the alleged diversion of funds for the expenses of 1-O and the external action of the 'procés' .

The total list of 35 includes Puigdemont himself, Junqueras or the former Catalan president Artur Mas. It also includes the names of former councilors convicted by the Supreme Court, such as Romeva and Turull; escaped former councilors, like Comín and Puig; former delegates of the Generalitat abroad, such as those from the United States, France, Italy and Portugal; and delegates abroad who still remain in office, such as Marie Katinka (Germany) and Eric Hauck.