A Catalan criminal law expert, Marc Molins, has suggested that the verdicts in the Spanish Supreme Court trial of the 12 Catalan pro-independence leaders could be known long before the date currently expected. The widely accepted view has been that the verdict would not arrive until the autumn, during the months of September or October. Now, Marc Molins, doctor of criminal law, who has followed the whole trial closely, warns of a possibility that the announcement could be as early as this very month, July.
Molins spoke about the question this Sunday on Catalunya Ràdio, suggesting that the mechanics of the verdict for the Supreme Court's other recent high-profile case, the so-called La Manada rape trial, could be repeated: bringing forward the decision on the verdict to this same month of July and then, early in the autumn, publishing the full text. He said he had heard from multiple sources in legal spheres that this procedure was an option.
This would mean that, before the end of this month, the verdicts and sentences could be announced, to be followed in September or October by the release of the judges' reasoning.
According to Molins, this option "is not usual, it is an exception" and "there is no legal obligation" to take such a course. In the case of La Manada, the practice was adopted due to the risks of the decision being leaked or the accused taking flight, but the lawyer admits that he doesn't know how it could be justified in the case of the pro-independence leaders.
One of the decisive factors that will affect what type of procedure will be followed is whether or not a new Spanish government has been formed. The Spanish general election, held on April 28th, were won by Pedro Sánchez's PSOE but did not yield an absolute majority. Coalition talks are proving difficult, with a first vote for investiture of a new government set down for July 23rd. "If there is no government and the political scenario is still one of interim authorities, an event as powerful as this [verdict] could be a distortion," added Molins.
A verdict announcement in July, while many are taking summer holidays, would raise the question of how the Catalan independence movement could react. Street mobilizations and other types of protest are anticipated when the court's decision is made public, but bringing the announcement forward to July could be considered as a way of potentially muting reaction to a guilty verdict.
Below is the Catalan-language audio of the programme. Molins speaks about the timing of the verdict from 12m10s of the clip: