ERC and Socialists agree to modify crime of misuse of funds in criminal code

Esquerra Republicana and the Socialist Party, governing parties in Catalonia and Spain respectively, have agreed to reform the crime of misuse of public funds in the penal code. 

The changes will see penalties lowered, although the Catalan party does not believe that the changes can be applied to the sentences of those convicted for their roles in the 2017 independence referendum. 

One change will be that applied to article 433 of the penal code which establishes that, when there is no personal or third-party enrichment, officials who divert resources to a use other than what they were intended will be sentenced to prison terms of 1-4 years, and disqualification of 2-6 years, as long as there is "serious damage or obstruction of service."

However, if the facts do not include "serious damage or obstruction of service," then the penalty will only be disqualification of 1-3 years and a fine.

The agreement comes after ERC formally proposed the amendment last week.

The party headed by Gabriel Rufián in Spain's Congress argues that this change would be in line with Spanish law prior to the 2015 reform that took place under the conservative People's Party and that now affects the organizers of the 2017 independence referendum. 

With this proposed amendment, Esquerra hopes to prevent the crime of misuse of public funds from being used "for political and arbitrary reasons against members of the independence movement."