The tug of war between judge Pablo Llarena and politician Clara Ponsatí is to continue. The investigating judge of the Spanish Supreme Court has made a move after the MEP's lawyer justified her non-appearance at the court summons in Madrid this Monday morning. In a resolution issued this afternoon, Llarena gives 5 days to Clara Ponsatí to present the petition for protection based on her parliamentary immunity. It is the request that the MEP registered in the European Parliament - which then referred it on to the chamber's Legal Affairs committee - after the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police arrested her a month ago in Barcelona. The judge also calls on the parties involved in the judicial process - public prosecutors, state solicitors and the private prosecution - to give their views on the argument made by the defence and on whether the absence from the Supreme Court should lead to an arrest warrant being issued.
At the same time, the judge asks the rest of the parties to pronounce on whether the order for Ponsatí to appear before the court should be converted into an arrest warrant due to her failure to respond to it and on the arguments of the defence.
"The accused Clara Ponsatí i Obiols has not appeared [to give] the investigative declaration for which she was summoned today." With these words Llarena confirmed the absence of the accused in Madrid at the same time as he reported that he had received the document presented this morning by her lawyer Gonzalo Boye and, in view of this, he granted five days of margin for the lawyer to provide "documentary justification" for the petition for protection made in the European chamber in addition to requesting a translation to Spanish of the document, which was delivered in English.
Boye calls for the court procedure to be suspended
Ponsatí's lawyer sent a document to Llarena this morning in which he justified his client's absence from the Supreme Court, requesting that the summons of this Monday and the ongoing judicial proceedings be declared null and void, and called on the European Parliament to give its opinion. In the document, Boye recalled that, after the Mossos d'Esquadra arrested Ponsatí almost a month ago in Barcelona, she sent a request for protection under her parliamentary immunity to the European chamber, which passed it on to its Legal Affairs committee. For this reason, the defence lawyer informed the judge of the relevant jurisprudence in the matter, demanding that he suspend the judicial proceedings against the MEP until the request for protection was resolved. "There is an obligation of loyal cooperation between European institutions and national authorities", explained his text.
In addition to this, Boye also noted that the MEP had duties in the European Parliament this Monday: attendance at the Industry, Research and Energy committee and the Economic and Monetary Affairs committee. The document explained that Ponsatí has the right to participate in the sessions and adds: "Logically, it is incompatible with any commitment of any kind hundreds of kilometers from Brussels". Finally, the lawyer claimed that the legal case was "illegal" considering that, as he argues, the Supreme Court is not competent to conduct the case.
Ponsatí's arrest, under study
As soon as Ponsatí was arrested and released in Barcelona at the end of March, the MEP passed the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, a request for protection alleging that her parliamentary immunity had been violated. Metsola referred the claim to the Legal Affairs committee chaired by Ciudadanos MEP Adrián Vázquez, who is studying it. From the seat, Ponsatí reproached the presidency of the European chamber for not being impartial against the Catalan independence movement.