Sumar sees the amnesty as an “opportunity” to “overcome a stage”, “reset the counter to zero” and close “wounds on both sides”. This is how he defended it Jaume Asensnegotiator of the party led by Yolanda Díaz, in the launch of Sumar’s proposal for the negotiation of the future amnesty lawalready advanced last Friday by EL PERIÓDICO.
In an event at the Ateneu Barcelonès, Asens wanted to make it clear that the rule that would exonerate more than a thousand people is not a simple “bargaining currency for the investiture”, but rather “a necessary” and “coherent” step to reach a “historic agreement”. Precisely, the same term used by the ‘former president’ and leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemontin his conference at the beginning of September in Brussels where he outlined his party’s conditions for the re-election of Pedro Sanchez as president of the Government.
In the front row, the vice president and leader of Sumar listened attentively, Yolanda Diazwho finally did not intervene in the event, along with other representatives of the Comuns, including the leader in the Parliament, Jessica Albiachand the former mayor Ada Colau.
On the other hand, no member of the Government or of CKD. In fact, the ‘counsellor’ of the Presidency, Laura Vilagra, criticized this morning that Sumar and the Comuns have opted to hold “a public event” of these characteristics, because they consider that it is necessary to be “discreet” and that it is not “the best way to contribute to the negotiation” or to convince the socialists, who have not sent any representatives either. Yes, he has done it on behalf of Junts, Joaquim Fornone of the eventual beneficiaries of this amnesty.
Asens has taken advantage of the event to respond to the criticism of recent days, making it clear that Sumar’s text is an “exercise in transparency” that aims to “contribute to public debate” and that in no case is it “the end of anything.” . Thus, he has presented it as a “working element of the negotiations” and has asked to “shield” this work and these conversations from “competition between the parties.”
Time frame and crimes
However, the proposal signed by renowned jurists from up to five different universities and defended by the professor of criminal law, Nicolás García Rivaspoints out as the start date of the ‘procés’ January 1, 2013 and advocates considering this day as the beginning of the law’s temporal framework. However, he leaves the specificity for the articulated text, which has not finally been included in the opinion distributed in the Ateneu.
Regarding the crimes that the law would cover, the text considers that they are “all those actions and omissions carried out by citizens demanding the self-determination of Catalonia.”
That would leave out the procedures such as the one affecting Laura Borràs, convicted of prevarication and falsification of documents for cutting up contracts when she directed the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes. On the other hand, it would expressly include a total of 13 cases, among which are one of the proceedings that gave rise to the summary opened against the members of the Defense Committees of the Republic (CDR) prosecuted for terrorism and manufacturing and possession of explosive substances.
The document also expands the pardon for police officers by actions taken to prevent the celebration both 9-N and 1-O or during protests that can be classified “as crimes of injury.” The proposal, however, leaves out of the future standard “the actions of members of the Security Forces and Corps that may be classified as crimes of torture and other crimes against moral integrity or the crime of illegal detention of a public authority or official.
Constitutionality and political benefits
During the presentation, the professor Nicolás García Rivas -signatory and coordinator of the text- has been in charge of defend constitutionality and the suitability of the norm and has defended the laws as “undead cells” that “integrate.” At this point, he has given as an example that the Constitution does not include the law on euthanasia and that this does not mean that it is unconstitutional. Furthermore, he wanted to differentiate this eventual new norm with the generalized pardon, which is explicitly prohibited in the Magna Carta, because he considers that a prerogative of the legislative power cannot be assimilated with one of the executive.
This is precisely how the signatories of the opinion state it, who also assure that the amnesty would have the purpose of “resolving from a political point of view” the Catalan conflict that has been dragging on for “more than a decade” and on which until now it had been adopted ” a criminal policy of penalization” of the movement. What Nicolás García Rivas has defended as a norm for “peace” and “progress.”
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Finally, the text defends that Catalonia’s aspiration for independence is “legitimate”, while the Constitution “does not found a militant democracy” and allows its total reform, adding that it allows “the expression of unconstitutional ideas.”
Also participating in the event were personalities such as the former lawyer of the Constitutional Court and professor of constitutional law Joaquín Urías or the professor Rosa Lluchwho has defended that “amnesty” might not be the ideal word for this rule and has asked not to forget that the Government left many non-independence Catalans “alone” in September and October 2017. “Many lines were crossed,” he wanted to assert. before closing the event with long and loud applause.