The judge of the Supreme Court Pablo Llarena has completely rejected the fifth recusal presented against him by the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont for being "manifestly unfounded". According to the instructor, the pro-independence leaders who have yet to be tried by the process are using the figure of recusal to try to delay the judicial process.
A comment by the magistrate on the amnesty law was the argument used by Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí to try to remove Llarena from the case and thus delay, according to the interlocutory, the extradition orders to Spain. For Llarena, it is not grounds for recusal that he has spoken, in an academic field, about an amnesty law because no rule has even been approved on this point and, moreover, he will not be responsible for determining the constitutionality is not what must raise this question before the Constitutional Court.
The magistrate explains in his interlocutory that the conference referred to by the defendants took place in a strictly academic space and responded to the analysis of the basic technical criteria, but did not evaluate any specific aspect of an eventual law amnesty In any case, the judge adds, regardless of the content of the conference, "his impartiality cannot be considered compromised" when the objectors demand that he be immediately removed from the investigation.
In his opinion, it is "impossible" that his conference can reflect any conditions for the processing of the case today, "since no law has been promulgated that can be applied to the case being tried". According to Llarena, Puigdemont's intention is to extend the judicial process until June 2024, the date on which the European Parliament is dissolved and, therefore, the plea requested by this instructor to the current Eurochamber to try the former Catalan president it fell
