The Constitutional Court (TC) holds this Tuesday the Plenary in which it will foreseeably endorse the application of the amnesty to pro-independence leaders for the embezzlement of the procés, after two reports favorable to extending the measure of grace to that crime have been known in recent weeks and both include reproaches to the Supreme Court for the interpretation it has maintained until now.
The meeting addresses the appeals for protection filed by the former minister and secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, and by the former ERC minister Dolors Bassa, in a deliberation that could accelerate the return of the former Catalan president and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, after nine years on the run from justice. The debate also comes a day after the early election motivated by his party's rejection of the Government's housing decrees.
The role of the CJEU and the possible application to Puigdemont
The deliberation on the appeals for protection comes after the support for the measure of grace by the CJEU, which ruled out one of the premises used by the Supreme Court to definitively deny the amnesty, that related to the affectation of the financial interests of the European Union by the illegal referendum. However, the European court did not rule on the other assumption appreciated by the high court, the alleged personal benefit for the pro-independence leaders.
When the TC's endorsement is made official, the Supreme Court will expedite its decision on the application of the amnesty to Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the appellants, after both the Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office also showed themselves in favor of pardoning the embezzlement.
If the appeals for protection by Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa are upheld, the amnesty will be applied to the former president of the Generalitat if the Constitutional Court's doctrine can be extended to the rest of the appellants. That is, the amnesty could reach Puigdemont provided that the TC's argumentation regarding Turull and Bassa allows for a doctrine applicable to the other implicated parties.
If these conditions are met, the high court judge instructing the procés, Pablo Llarena, would apply the amnesty to Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín, and Lluís Puig, who were prosecuted and not judged for having fled in 2017, while the Criminal Chamber would have to rule on those convicted: Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Dolors Bassa, and Raül Romeva.