The first trial for acts related to the process for the amnesty law has been suspended even though it has not yet come into force. The Criminal Court 2 of Girona has decided to suspend the holding of a trial that was to be held between December 12 and 13 against four activists who were accused of public disorder for blocking the AVE tracks in Girona on October 1, 2018. This is stated in a letter sent to the parties by the Attorney of the Administration of Justice to which La Vanguardia has had access.
The judge has accepted the request made by the defense of the accused, joined by the State Attorney's Office, which has considered it appropriate following a criterion of procedural economy. The judge argues that "even though the Amnesty Law is not in force at this time, it is in parliamentary processing and in its current wording it includes, within its objective scope, the facts that are the subject of this case, so, in If its approval were successful, it would have made holding a trial at such a high material and personal cost useless.
The defense of the four accused, carried out by the lawyer Benet Salellas, had requested the suspension taking into account that the amnesty law is already in parliamentary process and that they faced holding a "long" trial for facts "that could later be amnestied". In his brief presented to the court he argued that with the new criminal forgetfulness law "acts of public disorder, attacks on agents of authority and those materially related developed in the protests related to the secession of Catalonia would be amnestied", which he understands that the crimes that are the subject of this procedure would be included within the new legislation.
The State Attorney's Office also requested the suspension of the procedure "due to the possibility that the approval of said law would imply the extinction of the criminal responsibility of the accused" and taking into account the personal and material cost of all those involved in reference to the witnesses. and police officers who were summoned to testify and based on the principle of "procedural economy." On the other hand, the Prosecutor's Office opposed the suspension "because the amnesty law "is not a law that is currently in force and applicable since it has neither been approved nor sanctioned, "so there remains a long way to go before of its effective entry into force". And he adds that "it is unknown at this time what the specific scope of application of the aforementioned law will be in the event that it is approved, in order to determine whether the facts and crimes for which it has been opened can be understood as included in it. oral trial against the accused persons".
