• Justice.The Government maintains pardons during the coronavirus crisis by calling them "general interest"
  • 'Procés'.Justicia plans a new type of sedition tailored to Oriol Junqueras

The Government of Pedro Sánchez has on the table the first request for pardon for the 12 convicted by 1-O. The Catalan lawyer Francesc de Jufresa sent last December to the Pardons Service of the Ministry of Justice the request for the measure of grace for the promoters of the process , sentenced by the Supreme Court to penalties ranging from 13 years in prison and disqualification for public office one year and eight months of disqualification plus a fine.

In the petition for the measure of grace, to which EL MUNDO has had access, Jufresa asks for a full pardon for the leader of the ERC and former vice-president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, former advisers Joaquim Forn, Josep Rull, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull, Dolors Bassa, Santi Vila, Meritxell Borràs and Carles Mundó, the former President of the Parliament, Carmen Forcadell and the Jordis , Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez.

Currently, the processing of pardons remains active after the Ministry of Justice issued a resolution, published on March 21 in the BOE, where it argued that the "general interest" that "constitutes" constitutes the rationale for his exceptionalism "during the state of alarm.

From the department headed by Minister Juan Carlos Campo they justified this decision as it was an administrative procedure that does not require any attendance. However, the Executive completely decoupled that this authorization to grant pardons was related to the convicts of the procés and the hypothetical granting of the measure of grace at a time when Spain is shocked by the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus.

The lawyer's arguments

Although several of the 1-O convicts have publicly denied that they were going to request a pardon, the truth is that it is not necessary that they do so at their own request, since article 19 of the Pardon Law establishes that "they can request a pardon the prisoners, their relatives or any other person on their behalf, without the need for a written power of attorney proving their representation. "

In this case, the initiative has come from the Catalan lawyer Francesc de Jufresa, for whom the judgment of the Second Chamber of the High Court "raises serious unresolved problems of impartiality in the investigation, impartiality of the court and, above all, a serious affectation of the principle of proportionality of the sentence in constitutional terms ".

Jufresa explains in the petition sent to Justice that the conviction reasons, regarding the crime of sedition, "that the principle of proportionality proper to democratic criminal law requires assessing whether the tumult imputed to the authors effectively calls into question the functioning of the democratic State of Law ".

"It even analyzes whether the impediment to the judicial authority, typified, has to be effectively achieved by the authors, concluding that it is not," he continues. For this reason, the Catalan criminal lawyer claims "not to understand" how the Supreme Court applied sedition in its aggravated type of the Penal Code in his sentence.

Total or partial pardon

The lawyer asks the Government of Pedro Sánchez to agree to the total pardon of the 12 convicts. In the alternative, the lawyer requests that they be partially pardoned by substituting prison terms for sentences of disqualification under article 4 of the Pardon Law or that they be partially pardoned, imposing penalties of up to a maximum of four years in prison for the crime. of sedition.

The Executive must forward this petition for pardon to the Prosecutor's Office and the sentencing court to report for or against its granting. The Ministry of Justice has a maximum period of one year to resolve it, "and applications may be understood to be rejected when an express resolution has not been issued within the said period."

Many jurists describe the pardon as a "much more measured, cleaner" and "fast" way to benefit the leaders of the 1-O in the face of the 'ad hoc' reform of the Penal Code. However, although pardons are discretionary, they have to be motivated, as this was established by the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court in 2013.

An appeal may be filed against the High Court Chamber against the granting of the grace measures approved in the Council of Ministers.

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Know more

  • Supreme court
  • Oriol Junqueras
  • Carles Mundó
  • Dolors Bassa
  • Santi Vila
  • Joaquim Forn
  • Jordi Cuixart
  • Jordi Turull
  • Josep Rull
  • Raül Romeva
  • Pedro Sánchez
  • Juan Carlos Campo
  • Procés sentence

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