Thousands of people are involved in legal proceedings related to Catalonia’s self-determination, and may now be covered by the amnesty agreed between Spain’s Socialists and Catalan parties.
There is no official investigation into how many people are accused by the courts or involved in judicial and police investigations in the process that culminated in Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2017.
The known figures come from the cultural association Òmnium, one of the Catalan civil society organizations that defends the region’s independence.
According to this association, as of 2017, 1,460 people have already been on trial or are still on trial for the Catalan attempt at self-determination, which culminated in a referendum in October of that year declared illegal by the Constitutional Court of Spain . , days later, with a unilateral declaration of independence.
In addition to people who have been investigated, charged or already tried for the events of 2017, there are others who are in the same situation as a result of demonstrations and disturbances in subsequent years.
This group of 1,460 people includes several who have been accused or investigated by Spanish courts for terrorism, for actions such as the blockade of Barcelona airport or the alleged organization of attempted attacks on institutions and other infrastructure.
In addition to politicians of the time in the government and in the regional parliament, association leaders and demonstrators, among the almost 1,500 people identified by Òmnium Cultural are dozens of mayors, civil servants or school directors who, for example, organized voting areas for the October 1, 2017 referendum.
Potential beneficiaries of the amnesty also include Catalan leaders who were never tried for fleeing Spain days after its unilateral declaration of independence in 2017, such as then-president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, who has lived in Belgium since that year. and now negotiated the amnesty law with the socialists.
However, the agreement reached between the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Catalan parties on amnesty covers a period before 2017 and includes the process related to a first referendum on Catalonia’s independence in 2014, also declared illegal.
In this case, more than 3,000 people could be potential beneficiaries of the amnesty, according to Òminum Cultural.
Also, an opinion by lawyers presented on October 10, at the request of the Somar party, which will be part of the government coalition with the PSOE, defends an amnesty for thousands of those involved in the attempted independence of Catalonia.
The opinion defends amnesty for “those acts and omissions aimed at claiming the Catalan right to self-determination”, as well as for the police responses involving these actions.
The lawyers who drafted the opinion propose that the amnesty covers the period between January 1, 2013, when Catalan regional institutions launched a response to a change in autonomy status by the Constitutional Court – until August 17 this year, when the Cortes (the Cortes) were formed. parliament) of the current parliamentary term.
The implementation of the amnesty will entail a law that must be approved by the General Cortes (Congress of Deputies and the Senate) and then applied by the courts.
The law must then be challenged at the Constitutional Court by right-wing parties, which have already announced this intention, but this appeal will not prevent its entry into force.
Source: DN
