The Criminal Court number 1 of Sabadell sentenced the former mayor of this town, Maties Serracant, to a fine of 1,800 euros and four months of disqualification from employment or public office for a crime of serious disobedience of judicial resolution. The sentence indicates that the convict, while he was mayor, disobeyed an order of the Constitutional Court and allowed the holding of the referendum of 1-O in his municipality.

Serracant was mayor of Sabadell between 2017 and 2019 representing Crida per Sabadell, a formation linked to assemblies of the CUP. In the exercise of this position, on September 7, 2017, he approved a mayoral decree to facilitate the sovereigntist votes "in force" of the referendum law, approved by the Parliament and suspended a few hours later by the Constitutional Court, as he himself acknowledged in the trial.

Thus, he declared that "the duty to prevent was far beyond my capabilities" since "no one could prevent the majority citizen mobilization." Thus, he explained that the Consistory had "an instruction of custody of the ordinary ballot boxes and it was fulfilled" and stressed that "neither the Municipal Police nor the Mossos d'Esquadra nor the rest of the bodies could close the centers". The Prosecutor's Office asked for 2 years of disqualification considering that the former mayor "facilitated or did not prevent the actions that gave rise to the vote on October 1", although the court has estimated the undue delays for the past time and that is why it sentenced him to 4 months plus the fine.

The ruling indicates that Serracant, "in addition to not annulling and nullifying or, at least, promoting the nullity of the aforementioned Mayoral Decree, aware of the possible criminal responsibilities that would arise from the possible use of municipal premises to vote on the day of the aforementioned referendum and, with the firm will to transgress what was ordered by the Constitutional Court, promulgated Decree 10.485/17, of 29/9/17, by which it invoked during the days 29, 30 September and 1 October the powers delegated to certain councilors and related to the authorization of use of educational centers, cultural facilities and other municipal facilities ".

For the court Serracant "was aware of the specific content of the judicial mandate, consisting of 'preventing or paralyzing any initiative that involves ignoring or evading the agreed suspension' and "refraining from initiating, processing, informing or dictating, within the scope of their respective competences, any agreement or action that allows the preparation and / or holding of the referendum on the self-determination of Catalonia, regulated in the decree object of the present challenge', at least, since September 12, 2017", date of the suspension by the Constitutional.

However, the former mayor "did not consider it necessary to annul or initiate the process of annulment of the mayoral decree" that "agreed to give full support to the referendum of October 1, because it was obvious that having been suspended by the TC the Referendum Law and the Decree of convocation to celebrate it on October 1, it was already unnecessary and superfluous to process the annulment of the aforementioned Mayoral Decree which, de facto, would be empty of content and as a mere declaration of a political nature, without producing any legal effect and without having carried out an executive act of any kind".

The magistrate believes that Serracant's responsibility lies in the fact that he did not annul the decree of September 7 in "full support for the holding of the referendum, but also issued Decree No. 10485/2017 of September 29, which shows that the mayor did not have that idea or subjective projection of having declined the object of that Decree of September 6, by the fact of the suspension by the TC of the Referendum Law".

In this sense, the ruling highlights that the decree of September 29 proposes "the appropriate scenario to exempt the councilors from the responsibilities that, well known, could occur, foreseeing that use of municipal facilities that the effective holding of the referendum entailed. This conduct shows that Mayor Serracant did not have erroneous knowledge of the effects of the Mayor's Decree, nor of the possible paralysis of those effects through the nullity or the initiation of the corresponding procedure, but, knowing that the ruling of the TC and the personal requirement derived from it generated the obligation to paralyze the effects of Mayoral Decree No. 9285/2017 of September 6, <>, since it is an act which, far from being a declaration of intent without any legal effect, is an administrative act which, at the time it was issued in the exercise of its function, had administrative relevance and, its paralysis, fell perfectly and logically within the content of the judicial order that had been issued, precisely, one day after the issuance of the Mayor's Decree in question."

"The mayor, in the exercise of his function, not only did not annul or urge the nullity procedure, but three weeks later, three days before the one indicated for the celebration of the referendum, he approved another Mayoral Decree, of September 29, focusing on the powers of the councilors on, in particular, the use of the facilities that the celebration of the referendum would entail ", points out the court and therefore condemns the former mayor who a few months ago was signed as an advisor by the Department of Territory of the Generalitat under the mandate of ERC.

  • Constitutional court
  • CKD
  • Mossos d'Esquadra
  • CUP
  • Justice

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