Spain's top judicial authority considers amnesty law 'unconstitutional'

Spain's top judicial authority, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), approved a report on Thursday that considers the amnesty law unconstitutional.

The report was supported by nine of the council's sixteen members, while the group's president voted blank.

Thursday's vote, which shows a divided judiciary council, responds to the amnesty request raised by the Senate, where the conservative People's Party holds an absolute majority. 

Council members had two proposals to vote on, one from the conservative Wenceslao Olea, who considers that the amnesty is "unconstitutional" and violates the separation of powers, and on the other that of the progressive Mar Cabrejas, who believes that the amnesty is "exceptional" but legal.

Wenceslao Olea's believes the amnesty does not fit within Spanish law, is "unconstitutional," and breaks the "principle of equality" and the separation of powers.

As expected, the conservative sector, the majority in the CGPJ, supported Olea's text. The report is not binding, but it will strengthen the position of the PP in the Senate before rejecting the amnesty law in the upper house and returning it to Congress, which will approve it definitively in May.

Olea also criticized its processing and the "arbitrary" justification that accompanies the bill, and assures that whatever its wording, it is "imperative" that it excludes terrorism crimes.

The amnesty law for Catalan pro-independence figures was passed in the Spanish Congress last week, but still has some procedures to go through before it becomes effective.