Former president of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont spoke out after Spain’s Supreme Court agreed to close the case against several defendants and shelve terrorism investigation against Puigdemont.
I share the joy that so many people unjustly accused and persecuted in a crazy case can recover, since yesterday, a part of the life and normalcy stolen from them. A joy without nuances. However, I would like to make a few comments.
Puigdemont questioned the competence of Judge García Castellón.
“It is surprising to me that a magistrate of García Castellón’s experience and stature has made such a stupid mistake. Really, in the cause with which he wanted to crown a long life in the service of the State, has he been able to do so much?”
He called the judge’s decision “error,” and the case itself “delusional,” accusing the court of “having the leverage to derail it when it suited them.”
They were looking for what they have already achieved, and when the cause was no longer viable and was doomed to failure, they threw it in the bin.
The Catalan leader claimed that Spanish authorities had sought to “tarnish the narrative about independence” of the Catalans.
“From the movement that fascinated for its capacity for mobilisation and civility, it was necessary to move on to the movement that was frightening. And politics can be made about fear, as the ultra-right to which La Toga Nostra belongs shows.”
He also emphasised that reputation damage and suffering could not be undone by amnesty.
Spain is not a State of Law since there are judges who have been investigating a case illegally for years, who decide not to apply a law of Parliament because they don’t like it and who fill the their judicial decisions with a lot of political considerations (and disregards).
Puigdemont accused the court of legal uncertainty and unpredictable application of the rules.
“In a state of law, justice cannot be patriotic. (…) But it does not end with the structural repression with which Spain relates in the conflict with Catalonia.”
Supreme Court judge Susana Polo agreed on Tuesday to close the case against several defendants in the so-called “Democratic Tsunami” case. Earlier, Spanish courts investigated whether violent demonstrations by Catalans following the conviction of several people responsible for orchestrating the 2017 secession attempt were acts of terrorism.
