Spain: the Supreme Court revokes the arrest warrant for Puigdemont

The leader of the Catalan independence movement, Carles Puigdemont, can return to Spain today, eight years after fleeing to Belgium following the unilateral independence referendum on 1 October 2017, without fear of being arrested. Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena has revoked the arrest warrant for embezzlement that was still pending against him, following the Constitutional Court’s ruling. This has been reported by legal sources cited by El País.

This morning, the Spanish Constitutional Court upheld, by a majority, the appeals lodged by the pro-independence leaders convicted of embezzlement of public funds and ordered the Supreme Court to grant them amnesty. The decision was approved by 7 votes to 5, according to legal sources cited by the newspaper La Vanguardia. The ruling has thus paved the way for the granting of judicial pardon to the former Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, as well.

The Constitutional Court ruling, which establishes the legal principle regarding the application of the amnesty law to Catalan politicians who committed the offence of embezzlement in the context of the 2017 secessionist process, upholds the appeal lodged by the former Minister for Labour of the Generalitat, Dolors Bassa, of Esquerra Republicana. The Constitutional Court considers that the Supreme Court, by denying her amnesty, violated her right to effective judicial protection through an interpretation of the law that was “broad, contrary to the spirit and purpose of the provision” and “contradictory”. Consequently, it orders the Supreme Court to “issue a new ruling declaring the offence of embezzlement of public funds” for which Bassa had been convicted to be covered by the amnesty. The central point of contention was the interpretation of the exception provided for in the amnesty law for cases of embezzlement aimed at ‘personal enrichment’.

The Supreme Court had argued that the use of public funds to organise the independence referendum on 1 October 2017 had resulted in personal gain. The Constitutional Court rejects this interpretation: according to the ruling, the law distinguishes between cases of personal enrichment and expenditure incurred to ‘prepare, carry out and finance’ initiatives linked to the independence process. Interpreting the provision otherwise, the High Court argues, would drastically restrict its scope. The ruling aims to bring the judicial chapter of the independence process to a close, following the repeal of the offence of sedition in Spanish law and the reform of the offences of public disorder and embezzlement, for which numerous pro-independence leaders were tried and subsequently granted amnesty. It also paves the way for the amnesty to be applied to Carles Puigdemont, who may return to Spain shortly, in the midst of the election campaign for the snap elections called by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for 29 November.