The Constitutional Court protects Dolors Bassa and endorses the amnesty for embezzlement

The Plenary Session of the Constitutional Court has approved by seven votes to five the sentence that protects the former Catalan councilor Dolors Bassa for violation of fundamental rights. The president of the body, magistrate Cándido Conde-Pumpido, was the speaker of the ruling, after the magistrate of the conservative bloc José María Macías decided to withdraw his presentation on Jordi Turull.

Bassa's is the first appeal for protection that the court of guarantees considers against the decision of the Supreme Court not to grant amnesty for the crime of embezzlement of public funds from 1-O. This decision paves the way for the return of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont nine years after he fled Spain for fear of ending up in prison.

As reported by EL MUNDO, it is foreseeable that the instructor of the process, Judge Pablo Llarena, as a consequence of this decision, will lift the national arrest warrant against Puigdemont and, in addition, apply this ruling on the amnesty to the fugitive without necessarily having to wait for his appeal for protection to be resolved.

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court refused to grant amnesty for the embezzlement of funds from 1-O because the Amnesty Law itself excluded that appropriation of funds that was carried out with the purpose of obtaining a financial benefit. However, the Constitutional Court has considered that this legal interpretation is contrary to the spirit of the Law.

The court of guarantees considers that the Supreme Court violated article 24.1 of the Constitution - right to effective judicial protection - in relation to the right to political representation and the criminal legality of the leaders of the process.

Now, both the Criminal Chamber currently chaired by Judge Andrés Martínez Arrieta and Judge Llarena must issue resolutions in which they apply the criteria imposed by the TC, which is binding.