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Six men and one woman will sign the "most important" sentence of Spanish democracy. A tribunal composed of judges of different sensibilities, magistrates of an unquestionable prestige, who throughout the entire trial and deliberations of the 'procés' ruling have tried to maintain unanimity in their decisions. These are the seven todos that will sign the historic sentence.

Manuel Marchena

President of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, presided over the trial of the independence leaders and will be the rapporteur for the sentence. He went from anonymity to capture all the eyes of those citizens who decided to follow the live broadcast of the oral hearing.

Only the website of the General Council of the Judiciary ( CGPJ ) received more than one million visits during the four months of the trial. His already famous "look, let's see", "ask another question, please", "lawyer, do not argue with me" or "there is no figure of the witness" made him the involuntary protagonist of the fourth trial he has presided in their life. He passed the test with a note.

Canary, a career prosecutor, landed in the High Court in 2007. Seven years later he was appointed president of the Second Chamber in substitution of Judge Juan Saavedra . With a conservative profile, his ability to lead the Chamber with solvency will be worth his next re-election as criminal president.

Shortly before the trial he resigned to preside over the CGPJ, the governing body of the judges, as a result of the political confectionery around the renovation of the institution. The whatsapp that former Senator Ignacio Cosidó forwarded to the group of senators of the PP pointing out that with Marchena as president of the CGPJ "they would control the Second Chamber from behind", motivated his resignation.

The president of the trial of 'procés' said then that "he had never granted the exercise of his jurisdictional function as" an instrument at the service of one or another political option to control the outcome of a criminal proceeding. " That gesture, much applauded, served to vindicate the independence of the members of the Judiciary.

Before the process he was the speaker of the condemnation of the assailants to the Parliament, of the sentence to Francesc Homs for the 9-N consultation, of the judgment of the 'Falciani case' and the instructor of the case of the charges of former judge Baltasar Garzón in NY. Now, he wants the seven members of the 1-O court to unanimously sign the sentence.

Juan Ramón Berdugo

Valladolid native. Conservative court magistrate, he arrived at the Supreme Court in 2004 when Cándido Conde-Pumpido was appointed State Attorney General. He is a member of the Professional Association of the Magistracy . In these 15 years in the Second Chamber he was the speaker of the 'Rocío Wanninkhof case' and the 'White Whale' case for corruption in Marbella.

He was also the rapporteur of sentences that dealt a serious blow to the structures of ETA, as is the case of the 'herriko taverns' or the macroprocess against Ekin / KAS. In addition, he will be the rapporteur of the sentence that reviews the condemnation of the first period of the Gürtel plot, which caused the presentation of the motion of censure that expelled Mariano Rajoy from power.

Ana Ferrer

Madrid. Progressive. In 2014 she became the first woman to be part of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme. Previously, in 2009 she had been appointed president of the Audiencia Provinciade Madrid . Also on that occasion he broke another glass ceiling. In this sense, she is the only magistrate who will sign the 'procés' sentence.

Ferrer is a member of the Judges and Judges for Democracy association . She has been the rapporteur of the Supreme in the 'Prestige case' and the instructor of the investigation to the former senator of the PP Pilar Barreiro for the 'Punic case'. He filed this procedure.

Andrés Martínez Arrieta

Member of the Francisco de Vitoria Association . Qualified by some as conservative and by others, progressive. He is a magistrate of moderate postulates. The oldest member of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, where he arrived in 1998.

Previously, he was part of the High Court Technical Cabinet for a decade. In addition, he was a member of the General Council of the Judiciary. He was the rapporteur of the sentence where former judge Baltasar Garzón was acquitted for the investigation of the crimes of Franco. In addition, as rapporteur, he confirmed the first convictions received by the leaders of the Gürtel plot in the Fitur piece.

Luciano Varela

Galician. Magistrate of marked progressive character, founder of the Association Judges and Judges for Democracy , retired during the trial of the process . He is considered the most combative magistrate in the Chamber. That temperament was seen in the trial when two former deputies of the CUP, Antonio Baños and Eulàlia Reguant , refused to answer Vox's questions, and Marchena agreed to ask him the questions that should be asked by the lawyer of the ultra-convincing formation.

The gesture that Varela made to the president of the Chamber was the trigger for Marchena to agree a recess and stop repeating Vox's questions. No one, not even those who fear him, doubt Varela's legal capacity. With his retirement, many of his colleagues think that the Chamber loses one of its great jurists. As magistrate of the Second Chamber, he had to instruct the case against Garzón for opening a general cause for the crimes of Franco.

Antonio del Moral

Natural of Granada. Career prosecutor, is a conservative court magistrate. Before arriving at the High Court, he was part of the Technical Secretariat of the State Attorney General's Office. It is another heavyweight of the Chamber due to the high technical quality of its sentences. He was the rapporteur for the resolution condemning Iñaki Urdangarin for the 'Nóos case' and former Catalan president Artur Mas for 9-N.

Andrés Palomo

He landed at the Supreme in 2014 along with Ana Ferrer. Of the procés court, he is the expert magistrate in economic crimes and community law. It was he who wrote the three questions that the Supreme Court asked the Court of Justice of the European Union on the immunity of the former Vice President of the Generalitat Oriol Junqueras. He was the rapporteur of the sentence that knocked down the first permanent prison examined by the High Court.

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  • Supreme Court
  • Vox
  • General Council of the Judiciary
  • PP
  • Manuel Marchena
  • Oriol Junqueras
  • ETA
  • Antonio Baños
  • Artur Mas
  • Cup
  • Francesc Homs
  • Iñaki Urdangarin
  • 1-O trial

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