justice

The members of the new Catalan executive took office this Thursday, more than three months after the 27th of September Catalan Elections resulted in the victory of pro-independence forces. Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, called them to be “aware” of the citizens’ assignment “without renouncing anything”. ERC’s leader Oriol Junqueras has been designed to assume the Vice presidency and led the Department of Economy and Tax Office, one of the key areas of the new executive. Another novelty is the creation of the department for Foreign Affairs, which will be led by former MEP and ‘Junts Pel Sí’s top member, Raül Romeva.

Catalan civil society association Òmnium Cultural will organise a massive event this Friday to pay tribute to Francoism's forgotten victims and condemn the crimes committed during Franco's dictatorship. The homage coincides with the 40^th anniversary of General Francisco Franco's death, who died in bed afterwinning the Spanish Civil War, with the aid of Hitler and Mussolini, and leading a regime of terror that lasted 36 years. Different to what happened in Germany or Italy after their fascist regimes, Spain started a transition period towards democracy but many crimes were left unpunished. The homage will take place in Barcelona's Model prison, since it was "a symbol of repression and torture" during Francoism, stated Òmnium's president, Quim Torra. Òmnium has also written a document which "condemns the dictatorship" and urges for the "victims' reparation".

President Mas attended the 58^th International Association of Judges Meeting, held this Monday in Barcelona just weeks before his appearance in court for organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence. During his intervention, Mas outlined that democracy is sustained by the impartiality of justice. “Any partisan use” of the legal system could diminish this “sustenance” of democracy, he stated. Mas also expressed his hope that the Meeting will produce “contributions” to the “democratic quality which we all pursue”. President of the Supreme Court, Carlos Lesmes, also attended the Meeting and warned that to enforce the law “couldn’t be considered defiance”. 

Catalonia's Supreme Court (TSJC) has ruled against the petition filed by the Spanish Ministry of Education that asked to reopen the enrolment process for the next school year in order to use registration forms in which parents could explicitly choose whether they wanted their children to be taught in Spanish as an instruction language. In the last few years, the Spanish Government has been undertaking a judicial battle to change Catalonia's school model, which has been developed with an extremely wide consensus over the last 35 years and completely guarantees the knowledge of both Spanish and Catalan, as results show. The model is based on the linguistic immersion principle, through which children are mostly taught in Catalan, although many flexible measures are included. However, the Spanish Government would like to have Spanish as an instruction language as well, despite most of the pedagogic experts considering that if this were the case, many children from Spanish-speaking environments would not have a proficient knowledge of Catalan and would not be bilingual.

The Spanish Minister for Education, José Ignacio Wert, has been recorded stating that "the situation of Spanish in the education system of Catalonia, limited to being used as a non-tuition language, like any foreign language, is comparable to the situation of Catalan in the times they like so much to remember", referring to Franco's dictatorship. Wert made the statement on Wednesday with a group of journalists and one of them recorded it. His words were immediately replied to by many Catalan parties, and Wert had to clarify a few hours later that he had expressed himself in a wrong way. He then said that Catalan was persecuted during Francoism "in a ruthless way" and that such persecution was "abominable". However, his previous statement is to be added to a long list, such as when in October 2012 he said that "Catalan pupils must be Hispanicised", defending the cultural homogenisation promoted by Spanish nationalism for the last centuries.

The judge at Madrid’s 'Audiencia Nacional', which is a court investigating and ruling on organised crime, terrorism and international fiscal offenses, announced on Wednesday the launching of an ‘oral trial’ against FC Barcelona itself, its current President, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and his predecessor and friend, Sandro Rosell, over Neymar Jr's signing. In the end, neither Rosell's resignation in January 2014, nor the payment of a complementary tax declarations have prevented a judge from requesting the opening of a trial against the Catalan club and its former and current presidents. However, it is not clear whether the trial will take place in the end, since there are some doubts about the court jurisdiction. The Audiencia National judge is accusing all of themof alleged corporate and tax offenses in the Brazilian player’s signing. The judge believes that the total amount of the transfer was €83.3 million and not the €57.1 million stated by Rosell in 2013. In addition, the judge believe Rosell hid the real figure from the club's balance sheets.

"We have to fight the same evils as the Enlightenment: obscurantism, fanaticism and tyranny", stated Consuelo Madrigal, the Director of Spain's Public Prosecution office – directly appointed by the Spanish Government – when  referring to Catalonia's self-determination process on Thursday in Madrid. Madrigal also added that the Spanish institutions and "the rule of law" have also to fight against the "deviations and errors" of the Catalan self-determination process. However, despite these strong words, she nuanced her statement by stressing something which should be obvious in any democratic country: she "will not prosecute intentions" such as the road map that pro-independence parties have agreed upon. Madrigal also referred to the prosecution launched against the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, for the symbolic consultation vote on independence held on 9 November last.

Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC), which is the Liberal party within the governing centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU, has announced the sale of its headquarters, based in Barcelona. CDC, whose leader chairs the Catalan Government since 2010, has justified the decision in order "to save money", as they will relocate their activities in a smaller building, better adapted to the party's current needs, they said. However, the Córcega building is famous for being CDC's warranty before the judge investigating a corruption case (known as the Palau case) that could affect the party's funding scheme. The judge asked the CDC to pay a bailout or present assets as warranty for the payment, if the party was finally found guilty of illegal funding. No trial has taken place yet. The CDC explained they have replaced the headquarters by a group of other properties as warranty, in order to sell the main building.

Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, the eldest son of former Catalan President Jordi Pujol, has testified in court to explain the management of the money his family kept in Andorra for 34 years without informing the Spanish tax authorities. Jordi Pujol senior confessed the alleged fraud in July, shocking the entire Catalan society and destroying his moral leadership. In the past few months, the former Catalan President (1980-2003), his wife, and 6 of their 7 children have been indicted for alleged fiscal fraud, and 3 of them are also indicted for other corruption and fraud cases. The Spanish authorities may have known about irregular activities of the Pujol family for decades, but it only made front-pages when the former President started to publicly support independence. Besides, the Catalan Parliament have already undertaken a series of hearings to investigate potential corrupt practices during Pujol's governments.

The broadcast of a documentary entitled ‘Ciutat Morta’ (Dead City) has caused great controversy in Barcelona. The film narrates the events of the 4^th of February 2006, when the eviction of a building ended with a policeman being left a quadriplegic and a number of detainees. The film, which has been aired by the main channel of the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster (TV3), uncovers political, judicial and law enforcement irregularities, while at the same time presenting accusations of torture allegedly carried out by two members of the Barcelona local police. The case, which was poorly covered by the mainstream media at that time, has caused outrage in Catalonia almost 9 years after the event because of the serious nature of the accusations and the tragic consequences it had for some of the people involved in it.

The victims of Franco's regime have denounced before the European Parliament in Brussels crimes committed during the dictatorship and their impunity in Spain. They urged EU institutions to play “a more active and committed role” in facing the problem. Merçona Puig, sister of Salvador Puig Antich, who was one of the last victims of the Francoist garrotte executions, hopes that this action will serve “to apply pressure” so that Francoist ex-ministers can be extradited to Argentina, where there is an ongoing judicial process. Other figures also participated in the Brussels event, such as representatives of the association for babies stolen during the dictatorship and the association of the 1976 Vitoria massacre, where police fired on striking workers.

The Catalan Parliament has continued its interrogation of the Pujol family for alleged fiscal fraud and corrupt practices, after Jordi Pujol – who uninterruptedly headed the Catalan Government between 1980 and 2003 – confessed in July that his family had kept a fortune in the fiscal haven of Andorra for 34 years without informing the Spanish tax authorities. Pujol (aged 84), his wife, and 6 of their 7 sons and daughters have been indicted by the judge in the case. On top of this, 3 sons have received further indictments for other cases, including Oriol Pujol, who was the Secretary General of the Liberal party CDC, which is the largest force within the two-party coalition CiU that has ran the Catalan Government since late 2010. On Monday, it was Oriol Pujol's turn to speak before the parliamentary commission investigating alleged fiscal fraud and corrupt practices during the 23 years Jordi Pujol led the Catalan Government.

Barcelona Provincial High Court judge Santiago Vidal, who has openly supported independence, has been expelled from the judiciary for a 3-year period by the Spain’s Judicial Power Council (CGPJ). The sanction is far from unanimous and has been adopted after an 9-hour-long debate among the CGPJ’s 21 members, since the liberal minority was against sanctioning the judge for having written a draft Constitution for an independent Catalonia. However, the conservative majority considered Vidal to have committed a grave mistake regarding his duty to respect the Spanish Constitution. Vidal has been arguing over the past few weeks that such a draft was written in his free time and is part of his freedom of expression and ideology. In addition, he defended himself by saying that when working as a judge, he has always followed the current Constitution and legal framework. After hearing the CGPJ’s decision, Vidal stated that the decision is “political” because he is “hostile to the regime”, “an expression from 40 years ago that I thought I would not hear in democracy”.

Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, the eldest son of former Catalan President Jordi Pujol, has testified before the Catalan Parliament’s commission investigating fraud and corruption. He did so after the testimonies of his father and mother, while all 3 have been indicted and are in the middle of judicial processes for alleged fraud. Unlike his parents, Pujol Jr answered most of the questions posed - except those related to money the family had kept in Andorra for 34 years without informing the Spanish tax authorities. Pujol Jr said he will explain this directly to the judge in his testimony scheduled for the 26^th of March. However, he did speak before the parliamentary commission for 4.5 hours about some of his business activities and his accumulated wealth. He also denied having operated from fiscal havens (besides the family money in Andorra) and having practiced influence peddling or any corrupt activity profiting from his father’s position. Besides this, he also emphasised he is an “intimate friend” of the current Catalan President, Artur Mas, despite the latter having denied this a few days ago.

Barcelona High Court judge Santiago Vidal, along with a team of other law experts, has presented a proposal for a future Catalan Constitution in the event of independence with the aim to steer debate. The draft includes 97 articles according to which Catalonia would become a parliamentary republic with no army. However, this proposal can be changed as a webpage has been created through which citizens can table amendments online. Along with this draft, two other constitution projects have been presented: ‘constitucio.cat’ created by a team of Catalan law experts living abroad, and another constitution draft presented by ‘Lawyers for independence’ from the National Assembly of Catalonia (ANC). Spain’s Judicial Power Council (CGPJ) has called for the expulsion of Santiago Vidal from the Judiciary for his pro-independence initiatives.