García-Castellón tries to leave Puigdemont out of the Amnesty law

The judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón yesterday issued an interlocutory order on the cause of the Democratic Tsunami (TD) which seeks to exclude the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont from the Amnesty law, which is being processed in Congress , the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, and ten other people investigated for terrorism in this piece.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
25 January 2024 Thursday 10:07
7 Reads
García-Castellón tries to leave Puigdemont out of the Amnesty law

The judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón yesterday issued an interlocutory order on the cause of the Democratic Tsunami (TD) which seeks to exclude the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont from the Amnesty law, which is being processed in Congress , the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, and ten other people investigated for terrorism in this piece.

The magistrate issued it when there are five days left for the final text of the proposed law to be debated for approval in the plenary of Congress and with the aim of avoiding the amendment that the PSOE and the pro-independence groups agreed on Tuesday which excludes from criminal oblivion acts of terrorism that, "manifestly and with direct intent, cause serious violations of human rights, especially those provided for in article 2 and 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and of Fundamental Freedoms, and in international humanitarian law".

The judge takes advantage of his writing, in which he agrees to confirm the personation in the Tsunami case of two police officers who suffered serious injuries in the incidents that took place in the framework of the protests in Barcelona after the judgment of the process , to emphasize that "this action [the protest in which the officers were injured] cannot be minimized nor the serious result it caused, 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, and of which the investigated could be participants", in a more than obvious allusion to the amendment agreed on Tuesday.

In his interlocutory, the investigating magistrate, who does not rule out "homicidal intent" in these actions, rejects the appeal of one of the investigated in the case, Marta Molina, to which another, Xavier Vendrell, had joined, and the Prosecutor's Office, which alleged that the events that took place on October 18, 2019 in Plaça d'Urquinaona and Via Laietana were not attributable to Tsunami but to the CDR. García-Castellón points out that this argument cannot exempt Tsunami from responsibility, "as if the presence of some completely displaces the responsibility of the others". García-Castellón affirms that Tsunami was not a "stone guest in the mobilizations that shook" different cities in Catalonia.

In addition, the judge justifies with the "serious injuries", "extreme violence", the "serious impact on public order" and "the occupation, by the mass that acted under the cover and protection of the "TD organization, of weapons and dangerous instruments capable of causing these injuries", to "establish the qualification of the acts as public disturbances of a terrorist nature, objectively attributable to the members of the organization that allowed the result exposed".

And it indicates that "since no investigation was carried out, nor was it possible to listen to the injured party, or make forensic reports, it cannot be inferred whether, due to the type of object thrown, the place where the impact, the position of the aggressor or any other concurrent peripheral circumstance, an intention to injure or kill could be seen". It is clear, says the judge, "that the result of this action were very serious injuries, a harmful result that the investigation must investigate if it is objectively attributable to the action of TD and its organizers".

In addition, the judge tries to tighten the siege on Puigdemont and, after considering that the indications point to the platform's participation in the events, indicates that the conversation between the former president of the Generalitat and another of the investigated, Josep Campmajó, in which the president, according to the judge, "seems to assume the possibility that fatalities could have occurred, and his capacity, as he held the domain of the action , to stop this possibility".