(Barcelona) A former member of the Catalan regional government and a police officer became on Tuesday the first beneficiaries of the amnesty law for Catalan separatists passed last month, but bogged down in the Spanish judicial system.
The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has decided to “pronounce the extinction of criminal liability” of Miquel Buch, former advisor (minister) of the Interior in the government of Catalonia (north-east) and a police officer, according to a judgment made public Tuesday and dated today.
More than 400 separatists, convicted or indicted for various offenses arising from the unilateral declaration of independence of Catalonia in 2017 and events – prior and subsequent – linked to it, hope to benefit from this law passed on May 30 by the Spanish Parliament, but the application of which encounters numerous legal obstacles.
Mr. Buch was sentenced last year to four and a half years in prison for embezzlement and prevarication, for having hired in 2018 and paid with public funds a member of the Catalan police to serve as the leader’s bodyguard. of the failed secession attempt of Catalonia the previous year, Carles Puigdemont, while he was in exile in Belgium.
This police officer, Lluís Escolà, was sentenced to four years in prison for this offense.
Mr Puigdemont, who still lives in Belgium to escape Spanish justice, is the main leader affected by the amnesty.
He hoped to be able to return to Spain quickly after the adoption of the law, but his situation has not changed for the moment in the eyes of the Spanish justice system, which has indicted him for “embezzlement”, “disobedience” and even for ” terrorism” due in particular to its alleged role in riots that occurred in Catalonia in 2019.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had agreed to pass the amnesty law, to which he had initially said he was opposed, in exchange for the support of the two Catalan independence parties, including that of Mr. Puigdemont, at his inauguration in November for a new four-year term at the head of government.