The accompanying law for the 2023 budget is a totum revolutum that, in addition to containing some fiscal and economic measures, also contemplates the modification of Law 7/1996 on the organization of the legal services of the Generalitat so that they are empowered to present themselves as popular accusation "in criminal proceedings for discovery and disclosure of secrets" that affect any person "member of the Government, senior official or public employee or the general interest may be affected." It is a change designed for the Pegasus case, as recognized by the Catalan Executive.
The Generalitat proposes this modification in article 9 of the regulation after in July the Criminal Chamber of the Madrid High Court denied him the appearance as popular accusation in the Pegasus case. This court is where the espionage suffered by Pedro Sánchez is investigated, as well as by the Ministers of Defense and Interior, Margarita Robles and Fernando Grande-Marlaska, respectively.
On that occasion, the Court argued that "no legal norm authorizes the appellant entity [the Generalitat] to appear in this process as a popular accusation."
However, this amendment to Law 7/1996 is pending approval. It is included in the accompanying law, so it can only go ahead if the 2023 Catalan budgets are approved. And this is an issue that is not clear right now, with the Government negotiating separately with the PSC, Junts and the commons .
In any case, the reform is more extensive and covers more cases. The Generalitat also intends to exercise popular accusation in criminal proceedings for sexist violence; for death or serious physical, mental or sexual mistreatment of children or adolescents “regardless of the means used to commit the crime, including electronic or digital ones”; for criminal acts motivated by hate or discrimination "or that may seriously affect fundamental rights", and in procedures for the protection of the economic interests of consumers and users "when those affected are a plurality of especially vulnerable people ”.
With all these specifications, the Government wants to define precisely in which cases it could appear as popular accusation. In fact, the Court of Madrid argued that it was useless for the Generalitat to rely on the Ordenació del Sistema de Seguretat Pública de Catalunya, "because of its generic nature and its omission of the right to criminal action of said entity".
A lawsuit is pending, which was filed separately by Pere Aragonès against the former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and the Israeli company NSO Group. The head of the Government awaits the position in this case of the National Court. The president filed the complaint a few months ago before the investigating court number 29 in Barcelona, but this court transferred the case to the National Court at the end of October. The criminal offense can be up to nine years in prison, as admitted by the court itself in the interlocutory. The Prosecutor's Office presented a report in which, taking into account the nature of the facts denounced, as well as the condition of Aragonès when he was spied on in January 2020, vice president in the Government of Quim Torra, considers that the National Court is competent to judge the events.
