The former president of the Parliament, Roger Torrent, declares before the TSJC as accused of an alleged crime of disobedience to the Constitutional Court, in September 2021 in Barcelona. Albert Garcia (EL PAÍS)
The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) begins this Wednesday the trial of the former president of the Catalan Parliament and current Minister of Business, Roger Torrent, and three former members of the Board of the previous legislature (2018-2020) for alleged disobedience to the Court Constitutional (TC).
The high court warned the pro-independence politicians that they could not process two parliamentary resolutions, one in favor of self-determination and the other disapproving of the monarchy, which the chamber ended up approving in November 2019 in response to the publication of the procés sentence.
The Prosecutor's Office accuses the four investigated of having admitted both resolutions for processing "with a manifest and previously agreed will to infringe the unequivocal mandate" of the TC despite the "opposition" of the rest of the deputies of the Table.
The public ministry asks for a year and eight months of disqualification for Torrent, Eusebi Campdepadrós (JxC) and Josep Costa (ERC), in addition to a fine of 30,000 euros.
For Adriana Delgado (ERC), she requests a lesser sentence since she only participated in one of the procedures (16 months of disqualification and a fine of 24,000 euros).
It is the second time that several members of this parliamentary body sit on the bench for disobedience to the Constitution.
Two years ago, the TSJC sentenced four deputies of the Bureau to 20 months of disqualification for allowing the processing of the resolutions that led to the illegal referendum of 2017 and the DUI.
The mystery of Josep Costa
Costa, a former first vice president of the chamber, could cause a compromising situation if he does not appear in court, as he has done previously.
The former deputy, who refuses to recognize the authority of the TSJC to prosecute him, was arrested for not appearing to testify as a defendant in September along with the rest of those investigated in the criminal case.
On this occasion, although the TSJC wanted to assign him a court-appointed lawyer, Costa has managed to defend himself personally.
He could be tried in absentia if he does not attend the court date, as was former president Quim Torra, because his sentence of disqualification is less than six years.
However, the Law does not provide for the trial to be held if his defense is not present, nor does it allow the arrest of a defendant facing minor sentences to force him to appear, unlike the September episode,
Two judges removed from the case
The trial was postponed in July because the president of the TSJC, Jesús María Barrientos, was removed from the court because his “appearance of impartiality” had been damaged: the judge abandoned a public act in Barcelona in 2018 where Torrent spoke of “political prisoners”.
A month later, the Catalan high court also removed magistrate Carlos Ramos due to suspicions of partiality due to some expressions used in a car.
The Prosecutor's Office filed an incident of annulment to annul this second action.
Due to this request, the defendants' defenses asked last week to suspend the trial, but the TSJC has maintained the scheduled date.
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