MADRID.- Above the lawyers of the Justice Commission, the PSOE and its political allies in the Congress of Spain agreed to include the crime of terrorism in the bill of Amnestythrough an amendment that leaves out only cases of “serious violations” of human rights that involve torture and death.
The transactional amendment, included at the last minute, had the approval of Sumar, ERC, Bildu, PNV, Junts per Catalunya and Podemos, allies of the socialist party of the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, who promoted the Amnesty law in November 2023, as part of the pact that allowed him to achieve the investiture.
This decision would de facto imply the amnesty or pardon of 12 activists of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) of Catalonia and 10 prosecuted for riots supposedly promoted by the ‘Democratic Tsunami’, a platform created in 2019 to respond to the sentence of the trial of the ‘procés’ (Catalonia’s sovereignty process) for the independence of Catalonia.
Terrorism with amnesty, Junts and ERC with forgiveness
Among those involved in these events and now benefiting would be Carlos Puigdemont, head of Junts; and Marta Rovira, general secretary of the ERC, both investigated in the National Court, Spanish media reported.
In the so-called ‘procés’ there is no evidence of any torture or death that is part of the terrorism investigations, which is why those involved in illicit acts would be protected by this law.
The incorporation of the amendment in the Amnesty bill occurred after the PSOE agreed to “retouch” the text related to the crime of terrorism, from which articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Rights are now excluded. Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which contemplate torture and death, according to ABC.
Warnings ignored in Spain
The agreement reached by the socialist and pro-independence deputies contradicts the warnings of the lawyers of the Congressional Justice Commission, who two weeks ago made public the second report on the amnesty. This, in addition to the harsh questions from leaders of the PSOE and the PP.
In the report, the result of the study of the bill, the lawyers point out that the legal text invades the courts’ own powers and harms legal security and equality.
They also question whether there is an intervention in the Constitution, in favor of the independence movement, to achieve the support of its defenders for Sánchez’s investiture.
Despite this, the deputies who agreed to this and another amendment on criminal responsibility this January 23 allege that these provide “greater clarity and exhaustiveness” to the article on the effects of the amnesty in the criminal field, in order to provide this section of “greater legal certainty”, indicates the agency.
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Source: With information from EuropaPress, ABC, Diario Las Américas Editorial Team
