Supreme Court to proceed with case against Parliament’s President for disobedience

Barcelona (CNA).- Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) refused this Wednesday the appeal presented by the Parliament aimed at stopping proceeding with the case against the President of the Catalan Chamber, Carme Forcadell. Thus, the Court will continue investigating Forcadell for allegedly disobeying and perverting the course of justice when allowing the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote on the 27th of July. In the interlocutory order, TSJC emphasised that the case against Forcadell was not open “due to any debate of ideas” nor attempts to curtail Forcadell’s freedom of speech but rather has to do with “disobeying” a Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) ruling and allowing the conclusions of the committee to study the constitutive process to be assessed. The document insists that the TC “constitutes a key piece in the architecture of democratic and advanced states”.

The document, written by Judge Maria Eugènia Alegret, notes that Forcadell’s freedom of speech is guaranteed by the European Constitution for her to exercise this right “without any obstacle”, as well as the rest of her fundamental rights. However, it nuances that in public affairs “it can only be exercised within the legal form established in each case”. The interlocutory order also states that for the lawsuit to proceed “the facts described, to be proved truthful, should point to a criminal nature”. “It is needless to say that, regardless of the hints, the facts described in the lawsuit are plausible” continues Alegret, but calls for the Parliament to “add elements to the inquiry” in order to “prove” whether the facts described constitute a crime, and also in “defence of  the interests of the accused” .

Amongst these documents, the TSJC requests the Parliament’s pro-independence proposal, agreed on the 9th of November 2015 and all the resolutions which were passed in order to allow the pro-independence roadmap to be put to vote in July 2016.