Amnesty

Dolors Bassa went to the Constitutional Court (TCo) after the Supreme Court (TS) decided not to apply the amnesty law to the crime of embezzlement for which she had been convicted. The discussion revolved around an exception in the law; the TS understood that embezzlement could not be amnestied if there was personal enrichment . In its view, paying with public money the expenses of the referendum of 2017 had provided an advantage to the independentist leaders, as they did not have to pay them out of their own pockets.

The TCo does not share that interpretation. By 7 votes to 5, it has upheld Bassa's appeal and considers that the TS interpreted the exception in a too broad and contradictory manner with the purpose of the law. The key, explained simply, is that "personal enrichment" cannot be called any improper use of public money, as doing so would confuse that exception with the crime of embezzlement itself. For the majority of the court, the law intended to exclude certain cases of private corruption , not all expenses linked to the procés.

The decision does not remain a disagreement about how to read the law. The TCo concludes that, by denying amnesty with that interpretation, the TS violated Bassa's right to effective judicial protection . That is why it annuls the resolutions that had rejected applying it and orders the TS to issue another that declares his crime of embezzlement amnestied. That is to say, the new resolution still needs to be issued, but its content at this point is marked by the ruling of the TCo.

This ruling also has consequences for other leaders of the procés . It indicates that this criterion will be applied to the case of the former president and that, after the ruling is known, the TS has suspended for the moment the national orders for search, capture, and detention against him, pending a new express resolution. The 5 magistrates who voted against disagree and believe that the TC went too far by entering into an interpretation of the law that corresponded to the TCo.

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