Llarena withdraws the sedition against Puigdemont but keeps him prosecuted for embezzlement and disobedience

The Supreme Court magistrate

has issued an order this Thursday in which he establishes the consequences of the reform of the Criminal Code that has entered into force today for the defendants in the case declared in absentia,

former president of the Catalan Generalitat, former councilors

Antonio Comín,

and

and the general secretary of the Esquerra Republic of Catalonia,

Given the repeal of the crime of sedition, for which Puigdemont, Comín, Ponsatí and Rovira were prosecuted, the investigator understands that the facts of the case related to it are now subsumable in a crime of disobedience, since he considers that they do not fit into the crime of public disorder, neither in its new formulation nor in the one in force at the time of the facts.

In fact, it points out that, although the preamble to the reform says that what it seeks is a greater proportionality in the criminal response, the legislative option does not offer a lesser criminal reproach for those who are pending a possible prosecution but rather "a close context to decriminalization".

On the contrary, the judge affirmed that the prosecution of Puigdemont, Comín and Puig for a crime of embezzlement of public funds should not be modified, but rather maintained, considering that the reform of said crime does not affect the facts investigated in the sense of eliminating or reduce the penalty provided for in the classification that is repealed today.

In his order, the judge annulled the Euro-warrants, and the national and international arrest warrants, which were issued against the five defendants declared in absentia, due to the reform of the criminal offenses attributed to them and which motivated their issuance, which which it will communicate to the executing courts of Belgium and Italy.

And at the same time, it agrees on a new search and arrest warrant and imprisonment for Puigdemont, Comín and Puig for the crimes of embezzlement of public funds and disobedience for which he is now being prosecuted.

Regarding the issuance of new Euro-warrants and international arrest warrants for the purpose of extradition against the three mentioned, as they are the only ones to whom the commission of acts that can be punished with imprisonment are now attributed, Judge Llarena postponed the decision for the General Court of the European Union to decide on the possible withdrawal of the parliamentary immunity of the first two, and for the Court of Justice of the EU to resolve the preliminary ruling question raised by the magistrate.

With regard to Rovira and Ponsatí, the order agrees to their arrest for the purpose of receiving a statement for a crime of disobedience.

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• Pablo Llarena Conde

• Generalitat of Catalonia

• Carlos Puigdemont

• supreme court

• pardons

• Justice

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