Puigdemont was leader of 'terrorist' pro-independence group, Supreme Court prosecutor says 

Prosecutors at Spain's Supreme Court believe the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was the "absolute leader" of pro-independence protest group Tsunami Democràtic. 

Tsunami was an "organized group of a terrorist nature," according to prosecutor Fidel Cadena, quoted in online Spanish media outlet El Español. 

In a letter to the Supreme Court's deputy chief prosecutor – who is preparing the prosecutors' final opinion on the National Court's request to take on the case – Cadena said Puigdemont "exercised the absolute leadership" of the movement, "holding the reins" of the group.

Tsunami Democràtic organized protests such as the blockade of the AP-7 highway near the French border and the attempt to shut down Barcelona Airport after the sentencing of the referendum organizers in 2019. 

In November, Spain's National Court added Puigdemont and Esquerra Repubicana General Secretary Marta Rovira to its investigation into Tsunami Democràtic for alleged terrorism. 

The National Court has said on several occasions that it is against investigating Puigdemont, Rovira, and ten others for terrorism, but Judge Manuel García-Castellón requested that the case be elevated to the Supreme Court.  

Cadena's letter was included as an annex to a meeting on February 6, where the Criminal Prosecution Board of Spain's Supreme Court agreed that there was sufficient evidence of terrorism, going against a report from Judge Álvaro Redondo.

"The purpose of all of Tsunami Democràtic actions, guided, approved and favored by the Puigdemont's directives, public and private support, and intellectual and ethical patronage, was none other than to seriously destabilize Spain's political and economic structures, seriously disrupting public peace by preventing the public authorities and, specifically, the Supreme Court, from complying with and executing their definitive rulings," Cadena wrote in the letter, saying he had "no doubt that the facts fit perfectly within the crime of terrorism." 

Amnesty 

A lack of guarantees that individuals involved in Tsunami Democràtic and the Committees of the Defense of the Republic (CDR) will be included in a general amnesty for the Catalan pro-independence movement is one of the reasons that caused Junts to vote against the draft bill in January. 

Judge accuses Switzerland of political bias 

Regarding the same Tsunami Democràtic case, National Court judge Manuel García-Castellón accused Switzerland on Tuesday of "political bias," for a lack of collaboration. 

The judge sent a formal request to Swiss authorities in November asking them to locate Marta Rovira and for information regarding her bank accounts, but on Monday they responded by questioning the investigation, declining to provide the information requested, and asking for more information. 

García-Castellón warned that international treaties prohibit rejecting a request for judicial assistance for political reasons and crticized Switzerland for not addressing his request from November to hold a coordination meeting on the case. 

He refused Switzerland's request for more information on the amnesty bill, currently making its way through the Spanish parliament, calling it "manifestly inadmissible." 

"It is not up to judges to formulate advisory opinions on laws in process, or hypotheses on rules not yet published or in force," García-Castellón said. 

It was "incongruous," the judge said, that Swiss authorities accused his request of being political in nature "and at the same time were strikingly interested in an eminently political question." 

Second request 

Rovira, the secretary general of the pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana, has been living in exile in Switzerland since the independence push in 2017. 

In a written statement, the Swiss authorities stated that the Spanish request of November 2023 was very similar to the 2019 request which was rejected at the time.