Simon Hunter
A TOTAL of 46 police officers who had been charged for their excessive use of force on civilians at the October 2017 illegal referendum on Catalan independence have been absolved under a new amnesty law recently passed by the Spanish government.
A court in Barcelona let off the Policia Nacional officers, who were accused of causing bodily harm and offences against moral integrity.
The actions of the police took place on October 1, 2017, when they were sent in by the central government – at the time in the hands of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) – to stop the vote on secession from Spain going ahead.
The poll had been organised by pro-independence politicians and civic organisations, and was held despite having been declared illegal by the courts.
Photos and videos of the police violence against members of the public that day made worldwide headlines and drew widespread criticism against the government’s heavy-handed tactics.
Amnesty law
The new amnesty law came into force on May 30, and was agreed between the Socialist Party government and pro-independence parties in exchange for the latter supporting a new term in office for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after last year’s inconclusive general election.
For now, however, it seems the amnesty law will not benefit one of the key figures of the 2017 independence drive in Catalunya: Carles Puigdemont.
On Monday, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that the amnesty law does not apply to Puigdemont, who was the regional premier in 2017 and who has been living in self-imposed exile in Brussels since that year to avoid arrest and prosecution.
In a writ, Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena wrote that he would continue to seek the arrest of Puigdemont for the charge of embezzlement, along with two of his former ministers, Toni Comin and Lluis Puig.
Under the terms of the amnesty, the offence of embezzlement can be pardoned if there was no personal gain.
Llarena ruled, however, that Puigdemont, Comin and Puig had all obtained personal gain by using regional public funds to pay for the referendum, something that he deemed not to be in the public interest.
Such an exclusion from the amnesty could see Puigdemont’s party, Junts, withdraw its support for Sanchez’s minority government in Congress, leaving him unable to pass legislation and potentially sparking another general election.
