The Minister of Social Rights of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carles Campuzano, assured on Thursday that the Government of Pedro Sánchez is “open” to pardon those accused of the independence
process
if any of them are left out of the amnesty.
This Friday, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, was in charge of endorsing this statement, pointing out that the idea “is not nonsense.”
Puente has also defended the amnesty law as a formula to “save work for justice”, taking into account, he said, that even the PP now admits the possibility of a conditional pardon.
“An amnesty law would avoid everything that it means for the Spanish judicial system to continue with all this.
Man, let's save the work of justice, which is not very resourceful either.
If what we are going to do is subject people to a judicial procedure to end up pardoning them... Well, let's save ourselves that effort, and let's save the justice system that effort as well," he said.
Pardon and amnesty are different measures: pardon, which the Government can only grant to someone who has been tried and sentenced, avoids carrying out the sentence imposed, but does not erase the crime committed.
The amnesty, however, is a clean slate: it allows the accused not to even have to go through a trial, and implies assuming that the crime was not committed.
“I don't think what Campuzano says is nonsense,” said Puente at the inauguration ceremony of a section of the B-40 highway in Olesa de Montserrat (Barcelona).
And he added: "What we want is to bring back to politics what happened in Catalonia seven years ago, to remove this situation from the courts of justice, so that there are no criminal consequences for the people who participated in those events."
Puente maintains that “ending once and for all what that conflict entailed would be great for Spain as a whole and for Catalonia as well.”
The amnesty law has the support of the majority of Congress - PSOE, ERC, Sumar, Podemos, PNV, Bildu and the BNG support it - but these days the Socialists and Junts are maintaining intense negotiations to finish outlining the wording and ensure that Carles Puigdemont's party joins the yes vote.
Junts demands that the future rule guarantee that Puigdemont (who has remained in Belgium since 2017 to avoid being tried) and others involved are not forced to enter preventive detention during the time that elapses between the approval of the amnesty and its effective application by the judges.
Given these negotiations, Minister Puente has addressed Junts and has asked that “responsibility and common sense prevail”, with the aim of “moving forward to put an end to this episode”, in reference to the
process
.
The Government's objective is to approve the law as soon as possible.
The first opportunity is next week in committee.
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