The setting of the previous Catalan president considers that the reform of the crime of embezzlement is designed to profit Junqueras. In addition, he predicts assets from the opposition within the Constitutional Court and issues of software and interpretation in circumstances already tried. With this on the desk, the return to Spain of the Former Catalan president undergoes a call by the General Court of the European Union on his immunity and by the pronouncement of the CJEU
Former President Carles Puigdemont will return to Spain when the General Court of the European Union, based mostly in Luxembourg, guidelines on his potential immunity as a MEP and after the Court of Justice of the European Union, the 2 judicial situations the place the pro-independence politician litigates in opposition to the Spanish Justice. About the choice of the Spanish Government to reform the crimes of sedition and embezzlement? In his setting, consulted by NIUS, there’s a combination of expectation and skepticism. The first is to learn how the choice of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez as soon as once more places the agenda of the Catalan independentistas within the nationwide political information. The second focuses on probing the true affect that the choice could have on the interpretation that Spanish judges make of embezzlement sentences already imposed.
It ought to be remembered that Esquerra Republicana was not the one celebration that introduced its reform proposal in order that the crime of embezzlement could be punished with jail provided that it causes private or third-party enrichment. In addition to the formation of Oriol Junqueras, the members of the Junts Lower House additionally guess on a modification alongside the identical traces, which would cut back the sentences from 12 to eight years and would depart out of prison legal responsibility the spending of public cash for functions not contemplated within the Law, so long as this doesn’t suggest illicit enrichment. Finally, the measure accredited by the Government implies the upkeep of the utmost sentences so long as illicit income for the investigated politician are confirmed in extra of 250,000 euros.
So why is the reform of this crime of embezzlement essential for the independentistas? Because within the sentence issued by the Supreme Court in October 2019, nearly all of these convicted had been for an alleged crime of sedition in competitors with embezzlement. Therefore, it was not sufficient to alleviate his procedural scenario by eliminating the crime of sedition, because the most price for spending public cash was nonetheless 12 years, whatever the pockets wherein it ended up.
At this level, it ought to be remembered that it was the Popular Party that in 2015 aggravated the penalties exactly with the thought of toughening the punishment of the independence actions for diverting state public cash to their partisan pursuits. At that point, corruption procedures such because the ERE in Andalusia had been tried with the earlier legislation, because it was extra helpful for these investigated. And for that very same cause, now folks like the previous Andalusian president José Antonio Griñán won’t be able to profit from a brand new discount in sentences. But the pro-independence politicians will see the crime of sedition eradicated and the edge for prison sentences lowered for having used public cash to advertise the unlawful 1-O referendum.
A special judicial technique
In the identical means, Puigdemont may gain advantage from lowered sentences if he had been tried in Spain. However, the authorized technique of the previous Catalan president goes by way of a distinct path to return to Catalonia: that of a pronouncement by the courts of the European Union on the potential immunity of Puigdemont as an MEP. For the second, his place within the Eurochamber helped him to flee unhurt after being arrested in Italy in September 2021.
Since then, the Spanish authorities has been in a authorized battle with the previous Catalan president that has moved to 2 completely different venues: the General Court of the European Union, based mostly in Luxembourg, and the Court of Justice of the EU, which should resolve on each the extent of Puigdemont’s immunity and whether or not or not it applies to Spanish soil.