The permanent commission of Spain's General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has this Thursday agreed to offer the investigating judge from the Supreme Court in the case against the Catalan independence movement, Pablo Llarena, the protection he had requested over the summons he has received to a Belgian court for 4th September following a complaint filed by president Carles Puigdemont and the ministers in exile. In the civil lawsuit, they accuse Llarena of a lack of impartiality and of violating their right to the presumption of innocence.
Specifically, the agreement calls for the justice and foreign ministries, through the state's legal service, "to guarantee the integrity and immunity of Spanish jurisdiction in the face of the civil lawsuit presented against the judge".
CGPJ sources explained that the measures could include the appearance of Spain's legal services in the case or even the designation of a lawyer to represent Llarena in the proceedings in Belgium.
The CGPJ's protection in the face of what it considers "a planned attack on the conditions of independence in which it carries out its jurisdictional work", will also consist of deciding on the measures relating to the judge's economic integrity. In other words, for the Spanish state to take on any potential sentence (the exiles are calling for one euro in symbolic damages), and any costs from the process.
One vote against
The agreement was passed with votes in favour from the chair of the Supreme Court and the CGPJ, Carlos Lesmes, as well as José Antonio Ballestero, Rafael Mozo, Juan Martínez Moya, Juan Manuel Fernández, José María Macías and Pilar Sepúlveda. Concepción Sáez, who leaves the body this very Thursday for the justice ministry, voted against.