The repeal of the crime of sedition and its replacement by another of public disorder has already entered the Congress of Deputies. PSOE Y United We Can presented this Friday the organic law proposal that announced Pedro Sanchez this Thursday and that will reduce prison sentences from a maximum of 15 to 5 years, and the disqualification of up to eight in the case of authorities. The intention of the Executive is that this modification is approved as soon as possible, but it is necessary that it passes certain procedures.
How is sedition punished now?
The Penal Code current declares in its article 544 that “those are guilty of sedition who, without being included in the crime of rebellion, rise up publicly and tumultuously to prevent, by force or outside the legal channels, the application of the laws or to any authority, official corporation or public official, the legitimate exercise of their functions or the fulfillment of their agreements, or administrative or judicial resolutions”.
and anticipate sentences of up to 15 years in prison for their leaders. The sentence of the ‘procés’ imposed the highest, 13 yearsto the president of ERC, Oriol Junquerasfor being the one who had the maximum responsibility for those who did not evade justice, being vice president of the Generalitat when 1-O.
How are they going to reform it?
The criminal code is an organic law and, therefore, as established by the Constitution, they can only be modified by another law of the same rank. Thus, it was necessary for the Government or the parliamentary groups that support it to register in Congress a organic law initiative to amend the Penal Code. The Executive has opted for the second option and this Friday the socialist group and the purple have presented in the Lower House a proposal for an organic law in which they include the repeal of the crime of sedition and its replacement by another of aggravated public disorder.
The objective that the parliamentary groups have been the ones who have registered the initiative and that it does not come from the Government is to avoid the need to request the Council of State and to General Council of the Judiciary the pertinent reports that must accompany any bill that emanates from the Council of Ministers. With this movement, the two parties that make up the Government save several months and expedite the processing of the reform.
How is the crime with the reform?
Article 544 of the Penal Code and the very title in which the sedition appeared will be repealed with the reform. Instead modify the article 577 which is worded as follows: “Those who, acting in a group and with the aim of threaten public peace, carry out acts of violence or intimidation about people or things; or obstructing public roads causing a danger to the life or health of people, or invading facilities or buildings”.
For these behaviors, it foresees a “prison sentence of three to five years and special barring from employment or public office for the same time when they are committed by a crowd whose number, organization and purpose are suitable to seriously affect public order. If the perpetrators are found to be in authority, the penalty of disqualification will be absolute for six to eight years“.
How will the processing be?
The bill was registered this Friday in Congress by the spokesmen of the PSOE and United We Can, patxi lopez Y James Asens, respectively. The intention, according to the purple leader, is that it can be approved before the end of 2022. The deadlines to achieve this are quite tight. The first step that the proposal must overcome is its take into consideration by the plenary session of Congress, a procedure that could be held in the last week of this month and that, clearly, the Government will save without problems.
Then you must go to the Justice Commissionwhose celebration should be express and with little debate and introduction of amendments, so that the opinion is approved by the plenary session of the Congress in the plenary session of December 15. The last procedure would be sending it to the Senatewhere without making any changes, you could get the go-ahead on December 22. If the usual partners of the Government try to modify the text, a power they have, the process could be lengthened.
Does the Government have the necessary majorities?
As it is an organic law, it is necessary to have a absolute majority (half of the deputies plus one) to be approved. This implies that the Government should have 176 props. To the 153 deputies that the coalition Executive has (120 from the PSOE and 33 from United We Can) should be added another 23 seats that the Government will achieve without problems. To the satisfaction expressed by ERC, with which the Government has negotiated this reform, is added the approval of the PNV and EH Bildu, who have made a “positive assessment” of the proposal. Also, the leader of More Country, Inigo Errejon, has said that it is “a correct and fair decision”. Thus, the Executive would achieve 179 ‘yeses’ with which it would exceed that absolute majority necessary to reform the Penal Code.
What will happen after the reform
Once the change made to the Penal Code is published in the BOE, the Supreme Court must adjust the sentences it imposed in its sentence of October 14, 2019 against the leaders of the ‘procés’ through a process of individualization of sentences that allows us to see how the reform affects each of them, in relation to disqualification, since they already left behind the prison sentence when they were granted a pardon.
All of them were sentenced for sedition in contest with embezzlement. Now it will be necessary to see which disqualification is more beneficial for the condemned. The new crime of aggravated public disorder It provides for the authorities a maximum penalty of eight years of disqualification, but embezzlement provides for cases in which this can be raised to 20.
Except for the general secretary of the ERC, Martha Rovira, who will only face the new crime, with the penalties it provides, those who have fled, with Carles Puigdemont at the head, they are also accused of embezzlement, which prevents them from knowing for sure what sentence they risk if they put themselves at the disposal of the Spanish justice system, despite the reform.