THE National Court submitted to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) a damaging question determine whether the amnesty law is applicable to the crimes of terrorism attributed to twelve members of the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR)The court seeks to clarify whether this law violates Community law and whether this could guarantee impunity for these crimes.
In July, the magistrates had already asked the parties involved in the CDR case to will express his opinion on the advisability of consulting the CJEU. The prosecution, led by Álvaro García Ortiz, argued that any crime committed by those accused of terrorism should be erased. However, the judges consider that the application of the amnesty law to the crime of terrorism attributed to the CDR could seriously infringe Community law and represent a flagrant violation of it.
In a recent resolution of the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber, consulted by OKDIARIO, the magistrates maintain that the amnesty granted to the CDR would send a message in the future, indicating that the crimes of terrorism could be forgiven if there is a political intention behind them.
In a car 72 pagesthe Third Section of the Criminal Chamber suspend the procedure until the CJEU rules on the application of the Amnesty Law 1/2024, requested by the prosecution and the defense of those accused of belonging to a terrorist group, manufacturing and using explosives and attempted destruction. The magistrates propose nine questions to the CJEU, stressing that the facts described in the indictment documents could fall under the concept of participation in a terrorist group according to the 2017 directive and the Spanish Penal Code.
The order underlines that the Community directive establishes the condemnation for participation in a terrorist organization without the need to commit another crime. However, Amnesty Law 1/2024 excludes its application only to terrorist crimes. if they have caused serious human rights violations intentionally, which raises doubts about the ability of the Spanish legislator to add additional requirements to those established by the directive.
The Court also stresses that limiting the exclusion of amnesty to crimes that seriously violate human rights could be contrary to EU law, as the latter does not distinguish between types of terrorism according to the seriousness of the human rights violations. The Court stresses that the amnesty law suffers lack of clarity which acts constitute serious violations of human rights, which undermine the principle of legal certainty.
Discrimination
The criterion for applying the amnesty law seems depends on the context in which the crimes were committed, including in the context of the process Catalan independence. This could generate discriminatory treatment against other terrorist crimes committed by other ideologies. The Chamber considers that the amnesty law aims ensure impunitywhich goes against the 2017 directive, which obliges member states to establish effective and dissuasive sanctions for these crimes.
