There are legal cases that seem doomed to wander in an insoluble procedural tangle. This is what the thirty senior officials, civil servants and businessmen accused of preparing the referendum of October 1, 2017, are suffering. After initiating the procedures to decide whether the amnesty applies, the Barcelona court rectified itself and decided that it was not competent. court to rule on the criminal neglect of the process.
Eleven days before the seventh anniversary of the searches of September 20, 2017 that led to the demonstration in front of the Ministry of Economy, the people prosecuted for the cause of the preparations of the 1-O (who were later those under investigation for the external costs of the proceedings were added), they still do not have a judicial response regarding their amnesty.
In an order, the Barcelona Court annulled its own resolution of July 11 by which it opened the process to decide whether to grant amnesty to the defendants and concluded that the decision should be made by the 13th Court of Instruction of Barcelona, to include those under investigation for expenses abroad.
In its first resolution, the 21st Chamber of the Court left aside the persons investigated in the case investigated by the Court of Instruction number 18 of Barcelona on the costs of the “proceedings” abroad, despite the fact that they had been grouped in the same procedure of the 13th Court of Instruction, by decision of another section (the 2nd) of the Court. The conflict of jurisdiction has already paralyzed the case for more than two years.
However, in an order dated July 30 but notified this Monday, the magistrates confirmed the appeal of the prosecution, which stated that all those charged (for 1-O and expenses abroad) should receive a common response concerning their amnesty, and that it must be taken by the magistrate of the investigating court 13.
The amnesty law gave the judges two months to apply it, but the magistrates are aware of the procedural imbroglio that made this case exceptional and prevented them from meeting the deadline. This is how they explain it in their own resolution: “The case is certainly unique, this evidence cannot be denied.” The judges also acknowledge that they have not ignored the “inconveniences” that could arise from the “procedural peculiarities” due to the “procedural avatars” that this macro-case presents.
Among those under investigation and awaiting the judge’s decision are the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Raul Romeva; or the senior officials Albert Royo or Amadeu Altafaj. Now, the investigating judge 13 of Barcelona, Alejandra Gil, will have to deal with the parties before deciding. The Court had asked, in July, the opinion of the prosecution and the defense on sending preliminary questions on the amnesty to the European Justice or the Constitutional Court, as the Supreme Court and the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) have done.
