The TSJC acquits Torrent and the pro-independence members of the Roundtable of disobedience

The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has acquitted by majority the Minister of Business and Labor, Roger Torrent, and the rest of the pro-independence members of the Parliamentary Table of the last legislature of a crime of disobedience, for the processing of resolutions relating to the procés and the monarchy contrary to what the Constitutional Court ordered.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
23 November 2022 Wednesday 03:32
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The TSJC acquits Torrent and the pro-independence members of the Roundtable of disobedience

The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has acquitted by majority the Minister of Business and Labor, Roger Torrent, and the rest of the pro-independence members of the Parliamentary Table of the last legislature of a crime of disobedience, for the processing of resolutions relating to the procés and the monarchy contrary to what the Constitutional Court ordered. The sentence has a particular vote in the opposite direction of the magistrate Marta Pesqueira.

According to the sentence, the pro-independence members of the governing body of the Catalan Chamber did not commit a crime of disobedience "for lack of a clear and specific mandate to the decisions of the Constitutional Court (TC) of October 10 and 16, 2019 " . The judges – two of the three that make up the court – consider that those rulings allowed more than one interpretation and that it has not been proven that the defendants were aware of and wanted to disobey the Constitutional mandates.

The magistrates also point out that it is not possible to "punish the crime of official disobedience due to imprudence" since it is not expressly classified as a crime and that they understand that the parliamentarians were guided by the instructions of the institution's general secretary and the senior lawyer of the Camera.

The dissenting vote, on the other hand, points out that the pro-independence leaders who were accused by the public ministry and by Vox "are criminally responsible for a crime of disobedience" and understands that they were warned of their obligation to refrain from processing the resolutions that have led them to the defendants' bench and that his duty was to "paralyze any initiative, legal or material, that directly or indirectly meant ignoring the judgments of the TC".

"The conduct of the defendants, in their capacity as members of the Bureau, and therefore public officials, can be qualified, without a doubt, as manifestly stubborn, obstinate, recalcitrant and persistent, and of course contrary to the resolution and mandate by the TC", adds the dissenting vote that requests fines of between five and 10 months; and special disqualification for work or public office of between one year and four months and one year and eight months.

The parties had been summoned this Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at the headquarters of the Catalan high court to hear the verdict of the trial that took place at the beginning of October after several date changes. In the Parliament, in the middle of the control session, the vice president acting as president, has announced the acquittal of the members of the previous Table and has been widely applauded by the sovereign deputies.

"The decision of the TSJC is great news for freedom of expression and the right of initiative of the deputies. The Parliament must have autonomy to speak about everything that interests the citizenry, also about self-determination and monarchy", Torrent pointed out. in a tweet.

The former first vice-president of the Table, Josep Costa, for his part, has announced that he will review the sentence and "will continue fighting" until "the inviolability of the Parliament is recognized".

"I do not recognize the authority of the TSJC to acquit us. The mere fact of having promoted and held the trial is already an attack against democracy and the separation of powers," added the former deputy for Junts per Catalunya, who in the investigation phase was arrested for refusing to voluntarily attend to testify.

Along with the leader of Esquerra and former president of the Parliament, Costa and Eusebi Campdepadròs, from Junts per Catalunya, and the republican Adriana Delgado were also tried. The Prosecutor's Office requested for all of them a penalty of up to one year and eight months of disqualification and a fine of 30,000 euros.

Once the oral hearing started, Costa, who defended himself, planted the court after participating in the previous questions and requesting the annulment of the process. The rest of the defendants, led by Torrent, who only answered questions from his defense, argued that no debate in Parliament can be prohibited. In any case, the verdict is not based on that point, but on the fact that there was no will to disobey and that the resolutions of the TC did not have a "clear and specific mandate."

Some members of the Catalan high court were removed from that trial after being challenged, including its president, Jesús María Barrientos, who normally presides over trials in the TSJC. The recusal of magistrate Carlos Ramos was also upheld.

The circumstance arises that the Catalan high court must repeat the trial of the members of the Bureau of the legislature of October 1 –Lluís Corominas, Anna Simó, Ramona Barrufet and Lluís Guinó–, as ruled by the Supreme Court last week last, due to the lack of impartiality of the togados, because both Ramos and Barrientos had anticipated the meaning of the sentence in some cars in the investigation phase.

In this case, relating to the last legislature, Barrientos was challenged at the request of Costa because in 2018 Barrientos, as president of the TSJC, abandoned an act in protest in which the then president of Parliament, Torrent, intervened, because he had referred to "political prisoners" for those imprisoned in the process. His recusal was unanimously accepted.

The second challenge was also raised by the former first vice president of the Board and former Junts deputy at the beginning of August after being rejected at first. Costa Este emphasized that the party that proposed Carlos Ramos to occupy a position in the TSJC was the PSC, the same one that currently rules the central government and that urged the Constitutional requirements against the Table that ended with the complaint and subsequent judicial investigation. Thus, the court of the Civil and Criminal Chamber was made up of the magistrates Carles Mir, Francisco Segura and the aforementioned Pesqueira.