The Spanish Parliament will resume negotiations on a draft amnesty law for Catalan independence supporters responsible for the 2017 secession attempt after it was rejected by the lower house on Tuesday (January 30) when the Catalan party Junts demanded that its scope be broadened.
The bill will now return to the Justice Committee, where modifications will be negotiated, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported.
The socialist PSOE party, which governs Spain in a coalition with the left-wing Sumar party, had submitted the bill to the lower house under an accelerated procedure following negotiations with Catalan pro-independence parties.
But only minutes before the vote, one of the two Catalan separatist parties demanded changes to the bill to ensure that the amnesty law did not exclude anyone involved in the secessionist movement in Catalonia.
The amnesty law tabled by the socialists “has holes that the fraudulent Spanish justice system can take advantage of to leave the law on a dead letter,” Junts spokesperson Miriam Nogueras told the press.
The Spanish Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, has considered Junts’ ‘no’ to the amnesty law “absolutely incomprehensible”, while also defending the judges from the attacks issues by Junts during the plenary session.
“The amnesty law entered this House impeccable and constitutional, and it will come out that way”, he guaranteed in statements to journalists after Junts forced the initiative’s return to the Justice Committee to continue negotiating its amendments, which the PSOE rejected.
Terrorism, key point of contempt
The key point of contempt is how the amnesty for crimes such as terrorism will be structured to comply with European legislation.
The bill voted on Tuesday stipulated that terrorism could not be pardoned if it caused “serious violations of human rights,” especially acts covered by the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the right to life and the prohibition of torture.
In addition, judges were required to “immediately” lift preventive measures and arrest warrants, even if the criminal case is pending, for reasons such as an appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Former Catalan regional leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spanish justice after unilaterally declaring independence in 2017, is facing terrorism charges by a judge of the Spanish National Court.
The votes of Junts, the party of Puigdemont, who is also a Member of the European Parliament, were crucial to approving the bill, in the same way that the party’s support allowed Pedro Sánchez to assume a new term as prime minister in mid-November.
Junts and other Catalan independence and Basque nationalist groups, whose votes are also needed, are advocating an amnesty for all terrorist crimes committed as part of the secessionist movement.
The proposed law aims to pardon crimes related to the independence process committed between 1 January 2012 and 13 November 2023.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Read more with Euractiv
Images of Italian teacher chained in Budapest court spark debate in ItalyImages of an Italian woman being shackled and chained at a court hearing in Budapest have sparked a huge debate in Italy, with leaders urged to do something about the situation, even though her family say they have already complained about the conditions of her year-long detention.
Source: euractiv.com
