The judge of the Audiencia Nacional Manuel García-Castellón has become the main headache of the PSOE, Junts and ERC in the negotiation of the Amnesty law for those accused of the process with their files, "in sensitive political moments" - like they were described last week by vice-president Teresa Ribera, on the cause of the Democratic Tsunami (TD), in which she is investigating for terrorism the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, among others.
Since the negotiation for the amnesty began as a counterpart to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, the judge, on the one hand, and the negotiators, on the other, play a kind of cat and mouse game with the text of the law.
On October 19, 2019, the judge opened a secret case to investigate the platform that tried to lead the protests against the Supreme Court's ruling against the leaders of the process. Until last October, four years later, his performances were scarce, despite extending the instruction up to five times.
However, shortly before lifting the secrecy of the case, on May 13, 2023, a report from the Civil Guard leaked to the press placed Rovira at the top of TD, shortly after another judge, Pablo Llarena, left in a crime of disobedience – a charge that does not carry prison time – the prosecution of Rovira in the procés case, since the crime of sedition had been eliminated from the Penal Code.
But Puigdemont had not yet appeared in the case. At that time, no one anticipated the possibility of an amnesty that could return him to Spain without having to go to jail and be tried. Everything changed with the result of the general elections on July 23, which left only one option to avoid an electoral repetition. That Junts, together with ERC, supported one of the two candidates in exchange for an amnesty. And despite some contact between the post-convergents and the PP, it was soon seen that the only viable candidate would be Pedro Sánchez, who, in September, gave the first signs that he was willing to negotiate a criminal forgetfulness law.
The day after Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz sealed their alliance to form a new coalition government, García-Castellón took a first step to reactivate the cause by accepting the representation of Vox and the association of victims of terrorism Dignidad y Justicia. With that decision, the judge, who did not have the support of the Prosecutor's Office to accuse those investigated of terrorism, armed himself to defend his competence to maintain the investigation, given that if the crime were public disorder the case would have been referred to the Catalan courts.
A few days after Sánchez openly defended the amnesty, it was learned that the judge had received from the Civil Guard a report that he had requested that indicated Marta Rovira as the mastermind of the protests and “political coordinator” of TD. In parallel, he ordered the opening of an oral trial for a crime of terrorism for the 12 members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) prosecuted in Operation Judas, also for terrorism.
On the same day that an agreement between the PSOE and Junts on the amnesty was taken for granted, García-Castellón opened a formal investigation against Puigdemont, Rovira and ten other people for a possible crime of terrorism, while offering the MEP to testify voluntarily. , upon being gauged. The information that had appeared in the press about the amnesty indicated that it would include terrorism crimes as long as they did not result in injuries or deaths. In his order, the judge included hundreds of people injured in the protests and even one deceased – a French tourist who suffered a heart attack – during the occupation of the El Prat airport, a mobilization driven by the Tsunami.
Three days before Pedro Sánchez's inauguration, the PSOE alone presented the Amnesty law proposal, whose negotiations were on the verge of being derailed by tensions between Junts and ERC. The text excluded terrorism crimes from criminal oblivion, as long as a final sentence had been handed down, a scenario very far from the current procedural moment of the Tsunami and CDR cases. Also excluded were intentional (intentional) acts against people that had resulted in death, miscarriage or serious injury.
With Sánchez re-elected and the new Government formed, the judge elevated the Puigdemont matter to the Supreme Court so that the investigation could be taken over from there even before the National Court resolved the Prosecutor's appeal for the case to be transferred to the courts. of Barcelona and the leader of Junts was ruled out of the case, something that the court did not grant.
Fearing that including terrorism crimes in the amnesty as long as there is no final sentence could jeopardize the law before the Constitutional Court or European justice, the PSOE and the pro-independence groups agreed on an amendment that eliminated this reference and left out of the norm acts of terrorism that, "manifestly and with direct intention, cause serious violations of human rights, in particular those provided for in articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms Fundamentals, and in international humanitarian law.”
The magistrate, in an order in which he confirmed the appearance of two police officers injured in the protests, tried to circumvent this amendment agreed upon two days before by linking the injuries to the Tsunami action, in his opinion, “incompatible with the right to life.” and physical integrity recognized in art. 15 of the EC (Spanish Constitution), and art. 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights”. He also did not rule out “homicidal mood”, which would fit with another exclusion from the norm, that there is a desire to cause a death.
The bill will be debated and voted in the plenary session of Congress to pass to the Senate. Junts and ERC fear that García-Castellón's actions could ruin the amnesty for Puigdemont and Rovira and that is why both parties keep alive some amendments that seek the elimination of all exclusion of terrorism. More tomorrow.
