The independence movement does not forgive Judge Manuel Marchena for the sentences with prison sentences against nine leaders of the procés that the court that he presided over in 2019 issued and yesterday he wanted to demonstrate it on the occasion of a visit by the Supreme Court magistrate to Barcelona to pronounce a conference on artificial intelligence and criminal proceedings at the Illustrious Col·legi d'Advocats of Barcelona (ICAB).
Hundreds of people summoned by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium protested in the afternoon at the doors of the institution in front of a strong police force, which caused some moments of tension between the protesters and the Mossos d'Esquadra agents who They guarded the building, located in front of the –armoured– Government Delegation in Catalonia.
However, the protest did not coincide with the arrival of the robe, or at least it went unnoticed, and at the exit, by car and at high speed, there were only a few dozen protesters left. The scenes of tension were reproduced when the act had already finished at the moment in which the jurists were leaving the ICAB amid shouts of “traitors, botiflers”, “you are not jurists, you are fascists” or “you are not jurists, you are Francoists”.
The protest had its echo inside the room at the beginning of the magistrate's conference. About twenty people accredited to the act and previously coordinated in the associations of sovereignist jurists stood up as a sign of recrimination and left the place to the boos of some of those present. And even some estelada was exhibited. One of them, Pep Cruanyes, linked to the pro-independence entities, addressed Marchena to tell him that "he has turned the Supreme Court into an exceptional court", while his companions stood up. Also inside the room were Quim Jubert, a deputy for Junts and a lawyer; Jordi Domingo, senior consul of the Consolat de Mar, or former judge Santiago Vidal.
The act, which took place in an upper part of the building, on the eighth floor, where the shouts from outside and the constant beeps could not be heard, the press was not allowed access. It was reserved for collegiate lawyers who had previously signed up. Sources present in the room pointed out on leaving that it had been a very general conference, and that during question time, which was written on cards and passed through a previous filter, there was no fanfare.
Abroad, the president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, called Marchena's conference in Barcelona on artificial intelligence after Catalangate a "provocation" and recalled that, despite the pardons, the convictions of that "farce trial" are still pending. foot. For his part, the president of Òmnium, Xavier Antich, pointed out that the protest is to recall the words of his predecessor in office, Jordi Cuixart: “Ho tornarem a fer” (We will do it again).
