The prosecutors of the 'procés' ask to maintain the disqualification of Junqueras despite the reform promoted by the Government

The Prosecutor's Office sent this Wednesday to the Supreme Court its request to review sentences - in application of the penal reform approved by Parliament last December - for the leaders of the

Catalan independentista who were tried in 2019. In their brief, the prosecutors who led the prosecution in that trial request that the penalty of disqualification from holding public office be maintained in full for the four former members of the Generalitat who were convicted of sedition and embezzlement: Oriol Junqueras (disabled for 13 years; that is, until July 2031), Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull and Dolors Bassa (the three, sentenced to 12 years, which would expire between 2030 and 2031).

On the contrary, the Prosecutor's Office considers that the disqualification time imposed on those who were convicted of sedition but not embezzlement should be reduced: the former president of Parliament Carme Forcadell (from 11 and a half years to 9 years and two months), the former counselors Quim Forn and Josep Rull (from 10 and a half years to 8 years and two months) and, above all,

Cuixart and Sànchez —known as the Jordis— are, therefore, the ones who would benefit most from this review of sentences as a result of the government's penal reform.

With the initial sentence, Jordi Cuixart's disqualification expired in October 2028, and Sànchez's, in July 2027. Now that time would be shortened, so that Sànchez, former leader of Junts per Catalunya, could attend if he wanted, for example, to the general elections at the end of this year.

In any case, it will be the Supreme Court who finally decides how the sentences are, after listening to all parties.

The public ministry concludes that the sentence corresponding to the crime of sedition must be withdrawn from the nine leaders (because this crime has been repealed in the government reform) but urges that the new crime of aggravated public disorder be applied to them instead. , and recalculates the disable time based on that.

To those who were also convicted of embezzlement (Junqueras, Romeva, Turull and Bassa) he asks to keep their initial sentence.

All the changes refer only to the disqualification sentences, since the nine prison sentences were already pardoned by the Government in June 2021 and since then they have been released.

In their brief, the prosecutors reiterate their criticism of the reform of the Criminal Code agreed upon by the Government and ERC: the repeal of the crime of sedition, they affirm, "has eliminated one of the penal instruments of response to attacks on the constitutional order, weakening its adequate protection.

Despite this, they say, the events of the

have not been fully decriminalized, because, in their opinion, they are subsumed under the new crime of aggravated public disorder.

On this point, the Prosecutor's Office disagrees with the interpretation made by the instructor of the

case, the Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena, who in an order referring to the situation of the

fugitive Carles Puigdemont maintained that the conduct attributed to the pro-independence leaders does not fit into the new crime of aggravated public disorder.

Once the sedition was repealed, "the facts constitute a crime of public disorder because all the typical elements of article 557.1 and 57.2 of the Penal Code are met," say the prosecutors, who warn that it would be "at all points incomprehensible" if "the multitude of violent episodes, organized with the purpose of altering the constitutional order, planned, devised, directed, promoted and carried out intellectually and materially by the accused” will now be decriminalized.

Regarding the crime of aggravated embezzlement, the Prosecutor's Office requests that the punishment be maintained because it considers that the reduction in sentences introduced for this crime in the recent reform of the Penal Code is not applicable to the case of the

The reform agreed between the Government and ERC intended that the embezzlement for which the pro-independence leaders were convicted would now fit into a new modality (with much milder penalties) that punishes the diversion of funds for a public use other than that initially planned.

But the Prosecutor's Office rejects this thesis because, remember, the money was embezzled for an illegal purpose, such as the organization of the independence referendum on October 1, 2017. "The diversion of public funds to the commission of criminal and/or illegal activities It cannot, in any case, by its very definition, be included in the use of funds for public purposes that is included in the new article 433″, the prosecutors point out.

This interpretation made by the public prosecutor of the penal reform leads him to conclude that the four independentista leaders who were convicted of sedition and embezzlement —Junqueras, Romeva, Turull and Bassa— should not see their sentence reviewed, because, even if their sentences are withdrawn sedition, the crime of aggravated embezzlement, which is maintained, carries a disqualification penalty of between 10 and 20 years, and the current punishment is included in that bracket.

On the contrary, the five pro-independence leaders who were only sentenced for sedition —Forcadell, Forn, Rull, Sànchez and Cuixart— would now be sentenced for aggravated public disorder.

This crime carries a maximum penalty of five years of disqualification, and that is what the Prosecutor's Office asks for Jordi Cuixart (leader of Òmnium Cultural during the

) and Jordi Sànchez (from the ANC);

in the event that the crime is committed by authorities, the disqualification penalty rises to between six and eight years, and that bracket is the one that the public prosecutor applies to Forcadell, Forn and Rull.

In addition, he asks these three to also be sentenced for disobedience and apply the disqualification that entails.

In total, Forcadell would be disqualified for 9 years and two months (compared to the 11 and a half years that the Supreme Court imposed on her);

and Forn and Rull, for 8 years and two months (compared to the initial 10 and a half years).

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