The judge of the Supreme Court Pablo Llarena has no intention of summoning the Junts per Catalunya MEP again Clara Ponsati before next year’s elections are held May 28 to rule out any possibility of interfering in any way in the electoral result, according to sources from the high court to EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA.
It is tradition that the courts postpone any decision that could interfere in the electoral proceduresbut there is no rule that makes it mandatory, not to mention that regardless of the opening of the electoral campaign itself, the last few months have been lived in a similar key even though the elections were not even close.
After Ponsatí’s failure to appear in the Supreme Court, on April 24, when Llarena had summoned her after being arrested in Barcelona, the magistrate gave the Prosecutor’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office five days to determine the next step to follow. Both accusations reported in favor that, after consulting the agenda of the European Parliament, she be summoned again with the warning that in the event that she raises the high court again, she will be arrested for conducting her before the judge.
In no case can she be sent to prison, since she is only being prosecuted for a crime of disobedience, which does not entail this punishment, but fine and disqualification. However, the prosecution included in its report the possibility that she could be detained to carry out an essential diligence so that the procedure can advance: take an investigative statement after his prosecution for disobedience. And, as happened on March 28, after being arrested for driving her to the Barcelona courts, she was then released.
Differentiate
In the high court it is well aware that Ponsatí seeks to differentiate himself from others prosecuted by 1-O, especially those of ERC, such as Meritxell Serret, that he chose to appear directly before the Supreme Court to regularize his situation. he did the same the former deputy of the CUP anna gabrieHe, who also had only one crime of disobedience pending. The Junts MEP decided to walk around Barcelona to force her arrest and take her before the duty courts of the Catalan capital, where her situation was regularized, the national arrest warrant against her was annulled and she was summoned for April 24 in the Supreme.
Ponsatí, who just came to Spain on the eve of a European plenary session, which he was able to attend without problems, despite his arrest the previous afternoon, alleges that his immunity as a member of the European Parliament prevents any action against him from being adopted without a request to the European Chamber, an argument that Llarena has rejected in various resolutions. The judge maintains that this privilege is designed to prevent the functioning of the European Parliament from being altered, not to free its MEPs from open criminal proceedings long before acquiring the seat.
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That is the case of Ponsatí, who obtained it after Brexit, in January 2020, when the deputies from Great Britain left Parliament. The prosecution of him, like that of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and that of the ‘ex-minister’ Toni ComínHE produced on March 21, 2018, although now, with the penal reform agreed between the Government and ERC, it has been modified and in the case of Ponsatí limited to a crime of disobedience.
Puigdemont and Comín share this crime with her, but they are also being prosecuted for embezzlement, which in their case could mean their entry into pretrial detention until the trial is held, given the risk of flight that both have demonstrated since their first summons before justice in 2017.