The tension generated by the imminent closing of an agreement between the PSOE and the pro-independence parties to approve the amnesty law is having its repercussions in the judicial world. While the conservative sector expresses itself in terms such as the “beginning of the end of democracy”, in recent days judicial decisions have been adopted to try to compromise the effects of the amnesty.
In this framework, the judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón has reacted to the report received last week by the Civil Guard in which he closed the circle of the investigation opened since 2019 into the organizers and ideologues of Tsunami Democràtic. The instructor has taken a step forward and has opened a formal investigation against the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, and ten other people for a possible crime of terrorism.
The magistrate warns that Puigdemont is currently under arrest by the European Parliament, and therefore until there is a request, he offers him to testify voluntarily. With this resolution, the magistrate could open the way to raise a preliminary ruling before the Court of Justice of the European Union if the amnesty is finally approved. This means that it would have to be Europe that determines whether a Member State can grant amnesty for terrorism.
The amnesty aims to benefit, among others, those prosecuted for terrorism as long as there are no crimes involving injuries or resulting in death. Until yesterday's resolution, the only two cases open for this crime are that of the CDR and that of Tsunami Democràtic; In no case did these two exceptions occur.
But in yesterday's order, the judge includes more than a hundred injured people, in addition to fifty police officers, during the October 2019 riots as a result of the process's ruling and even possible responsibility for a death.
In the resolution, the instructor refers to the altercations that occurred at the El Prat airport and that caused "a serious alteration of public peace." According to it, during the time in which the occupation lasted, “the physical integrity of numerous members of the security forces and bodies, the protesters themselves, travelers and workers at the facility, in addition to the own air safety.”
The magistrate also warns that there was a death, as reflected in the media, and wants to know if it was a direct consequence of the altercations. That is why he has requested a report from the Civil Guard on the matter. He also urges the preparation of a report of injuries to offer to possible victims who appear in the case.
The Tsunami case began as a result of the riots in Catalonia in 2019. The judge, together with the Civil Guard, sought to find out who was behind the organization of a movement that, according to the judge, aims to “subvert order.” constitutional, economically and politically destabilize the State, and seriously alter public order through massive social mobilization.”
Two years ago, the Tsunami investigation stalled coinciding with the gradual relaxation of the political situation in Catalonia. However, a few months ago the Civil Guard reactivated the case. It has prepared an implication report and has also determined the economic cost of the damage caused, which amounts to 2.19 million euros.
A few days ago, the judge admitted the appearance of Vox and the Dignity and Justice victims' association, thus preventing the Prosecutor's Office from being the only party appearing in the case. The public ministry is not in favor of considering terrorist crimes. If the party and the entity had not filed complaints for this crime, the case would have been transferred to the ordinary Catalan courts.
On Thursday, investigators delivered a report on implications, in which Rovira was identified as the person behind the user Matagalls and who had carried out coordination work for Tsunami in relation to the search for institutional support and his political party.
The resolution agrees to cite as investigated, in addition to Puigdemont and Rovira, the head of the office of former president Josep Lluís Alay; to businessman Oriol Soler; to the ex-deputy of ERC Xavier Vendrell; to the national secretary of Social Movements of ERC, Marta Molina; to businessman Josep Campmajó; and Jesús Rodríguez Sellés, Jaume Cabani, Oleguer Serra –Òmnium– and Nicola Flavio, as linked.
He also agrees to summon as a witness the leader of Bildu Arnaldo Otegi, one of the people who was at a meeting in Geneva in August 2019, which Puigdemont himself also attended, and which, according to the judge, was when the operation was orchestrated. and the Tsunami performances.
After learning of the resolution, the former president, who is in Brussels negotiating with the PSOE the last details of the amnesty that should allow the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, denounced a “permanent coup d'état”, while ERC considered the accusations “aberrant”. . For his part, the ERC deputy in Congress Gabriel Rufián pointed out in X that “Tejero wears a toga”
