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The prosecutors' appeal on Puigdemont marks the path that the public ministry will follow for Junqueras and other accused of embezzlement

2023-01-18T14:46:59.624Z


The letter of the Prosecutor's Office supports Llarena's thesis of considering that not only personal profit defines the misappropriation of public funds


The former vice president of the Generalitat, Oriol Junqueras, arrives at the National Court on November 1, 2017. Álvaro García

The appeal of the Prosecutor's Office to the decision of magistrate Pablo Llarena not to apply to Carles Puigdemont the new crime of aggravated public disorder represents the first relevant pronouncement of the public prosecutor's office on the penal reform promoted by the Government by which sedition is repealed and lower the penalties for some types of embezzlement.

The State Attorney General's Office is preparing a decree to unify the criteria on how these legal changes should be interpreted, but the letter registered this Tuesday by the prosecutors of the

process

, whose content, according to sources from the public ministry, has been agreed with the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, leaves several clues about how the public prosecutor will act before the courts.

In view of the text presented before the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor's Office gives one of lime and another of sand to the intention admitted by the Government of Pedro Sánchez that the reform of the two crimes that have been attributed to the Catalan independence leaders implies a reduction of sentences for all of them and contribute to definitively closing the judicial chapter of the

process

.

The public ministry, as can be deduced from the letter, reproaches the Government for having eliminated the crime of sedition because that decision leaves the State unprotected against attacks on the constitutional order, according to prosecutors.

But the public ministry shares with the Executive that the facts that the sentence of the

procés

classified as sedition have not been decriminalized, contrary to what magistrate Llarena maintains, but rather fit into the new crime of public disorder, punishable by up to five years in prison and eight years of disqualification.

The interpretation of embezzlement is different, in which, as can be deduced from the first intervention of the Prosecutor's Office, the public prosecutor disagrees with the Government's thesis and considers that the reform of this crime does not benefit the pro-independence leaders.

The new Penal Code establishes a distinction between those who divert public money for personal gain and those who do not obtain direct personal gain.

The text, agreed between the Government and ERC, was supposedly designed so that the diversion of public funds to organize the independence referendum of 1-O would be considered an attenuated embezzlement, with much lower penalties than those provided for the aggravated type for which He condemned Junqueras and other members of the Government.

But Llarena, and also the Prosecutor's Office,

procés

the most serious formula of embezzlement, which provides for up to 12 years in prison and 30 of disqualification.

The letter registered this Tuesday by the prosecutors is limited to not appealing Llarena's thesis on this crime, which implies endorsing it.

Sources from the public ministry point out that the specific arguments applied to the case of the

procés

will be explained in the document that this department will present in the coming days in the Supreme Court, in response to the request of the Criminal Chamber for the accusations to rule on how they affect the legal changes to the sentences for sedition and embezzlement handed down against the former Catalan vice president and eight other pro-independence leaders.

In addition to that letter, whose conclusions will focus on the case of the

procés

, the interpretation of the Public Prosecutor's Office will be underpinned by the criteria unification decree prepared by the Attorney General's Office, which will establish how the embezzlement reform should be interpreted for all corruption cases.

These keys will be based on the writings that court prosecutors from all over the country must present before possible reviews of sentences or accusations raised by judges.

The first cases have already been put on the table by Judge Manuel García Castellón, instructor at the National Court of some of the main corruption cases, who last week suggested the possibility of filing up to five criminal proceedings opened for prevarication against PP leaders .

The magistrate has requested his opinion from the Prosecutor's Office, which has not yet ruled.

Pending these writings and the unified criteria agreed upon by the attorney general,

"The profit motive is equally appreciable when the Administration is stripped of some public funds to meet payment obligations that correspond to the active subject of the crime and that are fully unrelated to the legitimate functioning of the Administration, such as when the Administration is attributed a obligation of a particular nature and totally unrelated to the public interests that are managed.

In both cases, public assets are disposed of as their own and they are diverted from their destination to obtain a private benefit,” Llarena said in the order issued last week by the person who maintains the accusation of embezzlement against Puigdemont.

00:30

Puigdemont: "I will fight to return free"

The former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, after collecting his minutes as an MEP on December 20, 2019. Photo: EFE |

Video: EFE

In any case, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has warned in recent weeks that the penal reform could imply a trickle of reductions in sentences for corrupt persons, so it is foreseeable that, among the criteria established by the public ministry, it will contemplate endorsing the reduction of the punishment in some cases in application of the new law.

The Executive, however, assures that its reform will not imply lower sentences for corrupt people, although it did foresee that secessionist leaders would be lowered.


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Source: elparis

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