The Public Prosecution Service of the National Court requests amnesty on the CDR accused of terrorism | Spain

The Public Prosecution Service of the National Court requested on Thursday to grant amnesty to the twelve members of the so-called Defense Committees of the Catalan Republic (CDR) prosecuted for terrorist crimes, and requests that the ongoing trial be consequently suspended and the entire proceedings archived. The Lieutenant Prosecutor of the said judicial body, Marta Durántez, is responsible for expressing the position of the Public Prosecution Service during a hearing before the magistrates of the Third Department of the Criminal Chamber, after the prosecutor who handled the case, Vicente González Mota. decided to leave when he disagreed with this statement about the consequences of the amnesty law, tax sources have confirmed.

The Public Prosecution Service accused the twelve defendants of being part of a terrorist organization; and eight of them also of possession, storage and manufacture of explosives and of attempted terrorist attacks. However, Durántez assured that the actions of the CDR did not aim to be classified as terrorism as defined in the 2017 European Directive, nor did it have the intention to cause damage to the integrity of people or violate human rights, which some are cases excluded from the amnesty law. “We cannot talk about damage that could have been caused, but about certainties,” emphasized the prosecutor, who has requested that the criminal liability of the twelve defendants be nullified and that the proceedings be dismissed freely.

The court planned to hold this hearing – called a matter of prior ruling – on April 1, when the amnesty law was still in the parliamentary process. But the medical leave of the defense of one of the suspects, Álex Codina, led to its postponement, against the opinion of prosecutor Vicente González Mota, who had taken over the case in recent months. replacing Miguel Ángel Carballo, who now heads the Public Prosecutor's Office in Ciudad Real. Finally, the appearances of the lawyers and the accusations took place last Thursday, even though the law had already been approved.

The criterion that Durántez has defended has also been applied by the Public Prosecution Service in other cases in recent days. His partner, Prosecutor Carballo, who, despite his stay in Ciudad Real, is still responsible for handling the other case opened at the National Court for terrorism related to the processes independence, that of Democratic tsunamireported a week ago that it was in favor of applying the amnesty to those investigated for this reason, realizing that the facts are considered in the law that came into effect on June 11. In the same way, the number two in the Public Prosecution Service, Lieutenant Prosecutor María Ángeles Sánchez Conde, has also claimed this in connection with the A terrorism case has also been opened before the Supreme Court against former President of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and the MP, Ruben Wagensberg, were both eligible.

The Public Prosecution Service submitted its provisional indictment to the CDR in November 2023 demanded sentences of between 8 and 27 years in prison for the 12 defendants for allegedly promoting the so-called Tactical Response Team (ERT), a so-called 'radical cell' created within these small groups and which emerged in Catalonia to defend secession after the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017. According to the document constituted the CDR as a “parallel terrorist organization, of a clandestine and stable nature, whose aim would be to carry out violent actions or attacks using explosives and incendiary substances.”

Their actions included roadblocks, erecting toll barriers and pouring oil on a stretch of road where the procession carrying those convicted of the crime had to pass. processes from Lledoners prison. According to the Public Prosecution Service, they were also given ambitious assignments, such as setting up a so-called Catalan CNI to provide the logistics infrastructure that makes this possible occupy the parliament of Catalonia and defend it later.

For this reason, the Public Prosecutor's Office has demanded 27 years in prison for eight members of the CDR: Eduardo Garzón, Esther García, Sonia Pascual, Queralt Casoliva, Germinal Tomás, Alexis Codina, Jordi Ros and Rafael Joaquín Delgado, to whom they accused crimes of belonging to the terrorist organization; possession, storage and manufacture of explosive and flammable substances or devices; and attempted terrorist attacks. The other four defendants – Ferrán Jolis, Xavier Buigas, David Budria and Clara Borrero – were charged only with membership of a terrorist organization, for which he demanded eight years in prison for them.

For their part, the defenses of the CDR have requested, as planned, that the amnesty law be applied and that, as a result, all these events be deleted from the police files so that they do not leave a trace of antecedents, as well as the return of the imposed bonds and the lifting of any precautionary measure against the defendants.

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