The former president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights against his disqualification for a year and a half, which cost him his position for not having taken down the Palau de la Generalitat when he was asked to display the banner calling for freedom of expression. imprisoned pro-independence politicians and yellow ties.
In the appeal, Torra alleges violation of the right to an impartial judge, the principle of criminal legality and the right to political participation.
The European path is thus opened after exhausting the possibilities of resorting to the Spanish justice system following the conviction of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia and the confirmations of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.
The appeal, presented in Catalan, considers that this is a case of ideological and political persecution against the Catalan national minority in Spain.
The Plenary of the Constitutional rejected in February the last resort of Torra to the Spanish jurisdiction but with two individual votes of the magistrates Juan Antonio Xiol and Ramón Sáez. That sentence ruled out the violation of the right to an impartial judge, to the ordinary judge predetermined by law, to defense and to the presumption of innocence, as well as the right to equality.
The events took place in March 2019. The former president refused to comply with the repeated requirements directed by the Central Electoral Board, which demanded the removal of a poster in support of the prisoners of the procés and several yellow ribbons placed from the Palau de la Generalitat.
In May, Torra was sentenced again by a Barcelona court to a 15-month disqualification sentence and a fine of 24,000 euros for not hanging a banner in favor of the freedom of the procés prisoners in September 2019.
