As EL ESPAÑOL has learned, the third section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court will question, through a preliminary question, the controversial rule Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Judges Félix Guevara, Jesús Eduardo Gutiérrez and Carlos Fraile have already expressed their doubts about the legality of the amnesty approved by the government of Pedro Sánchez in favor of the Catalan independentists who were instructed in certain judicial cases. Above all, with regard to crime of terrorism.
The measure would affect all 12 members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) prosecuted for, allegedly, make explosives with those who planned to commit acts of violence in favor of secessionism.
In a resolution dated last July, the Third Section already stressed that the amnesty law “contradicts” the “firm” “united” fight of the European Union against all forms of terrorisma crime for which the 12 CDRs were prosecuted. In this order, the court granted the parties appearing a period of time to decide on the possibility of referring the matter to the CJEU.
Previously, the Public Prosecutor’s Office had already strongly requested that the amnesty be applied to the benefit of these twelve radical independentists, among whom it was intended to attack the Catalan Parliament to demand the disconnection of the autonomous community from the rest of Spain. However, they were arrested by the Civil Guard, who discovered that they had organized a laboratory-kitchen of explosives.
At a hearing held at the end of June (known as the preliminary decision hearing), the lieutenant prosecutor at the National Court, Marta Durantezrequested the application of amnesty in favor of these defendants. The accusations were contested, as was the prosecutor who had been handling the case until then and whom Durántez had to replace during this event.
Now, the magistrates will send a preliminary question to the CJEU, the tool with which national courts can consult the Court of Justice of the EU to find out whether a rule or part of it contravenes or violates European law.
In that July resolution, the court had already listed several reasons for this. According to it, the amnesty “could constitute a clear violation of European Union law”. In particular, the directive dedicated to the fight against all forms of terrorism, number 541/2017.
“This court seriously doubts that community texts can be limited in their application to establish an amnesty law,” the third section declared a little over two months ago.
Likewise, the Criminal Chamber criticized the fact that the controversial norm approved by the Congress of Deputies and promoted by the Sánchez government is contrary to the Union’s “unitary policy” in its fight against terrorism, which considers all its forms as “extremely serious”.
Image of a Civil Guard report with surveillance of one of the members of this radical group.
However, the Amnesty Law distinguishes one type of terrorism from another and includes among the exclusions that prevent its application the forms of this crime that have caused “serious violations of human rights”. The Chamber recalled in the July order that the will of the European directives is to consider all these behaviors “as acts of extreme gravity”, without differentiation.
This is why, after analyzing the amnesty law and the EU directives on terrorism, the judges already put forward their “serious doubts” on the question of whether the standard, “by excluding only certain forms of terrorism, those which have intentionally caused serious violations of human rights (…), does not imply, in a certain way, a tacit repeal of an essential part of the Community directive and ultimately goes against the will of the Community legislator expressed in its articles”. They will therefore now consult the CJEU.
“Instead, [la Ley de Amnistía] “allows (…) pardoning other forms of terrorism (…) which may also constitute serious acts, such as membership in a criminal organisation or the possession and manufacture of explosives,” the court criticised last July.
