Cases closed. The Spanish Supreme Court will not review the pardons granted to Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart because it considers that Vox and Cs do not have legitimacy to present an appeal against the pardons granted by the Spanish government to "the Jordis", former leaders of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural respectively. Specifically, Section Five of the court's Administrative Disputes chamber announced this Thursday that, due to a "lack of legitimacy", it had rejected three appeals presented by the Vox party along with three former deputies of the Ciudadanos (Cs) party in the Catalan Parliament, against the partial pardons that the Spanish government under Pedro Sánchez granted to the leaders of the major civil society groups in the Catalan independence process. They were both serving sentences of 9 years in prison for sedition over their roles in the process centred on the 1st October 2017 referendum.
In the case of the two appeals presented by Vox, the chamber rejected them "unanimously. And, in the case of the appeal presented by the ex-MPs for Ciudadanos, the room adopted the decision "by majority". No judge has announced a dissenting opinion, for now. The full ruling will be released in the coming days, according to the Supreme Court press office.
Original jurisprudence
With this decision, the court of contention returns to its previous jurisprudence, which specifies that political parties are not entitled to submit appeals against pardons because they are not specifically damaged. This position had been changed to admit the appeals against the pardoning of the Catalan pro-independence leaders, in a decision made by the chamber after a change of judges allowed the entry of a conservative majority.
A good sign for the other seven
The rejection of the appeals against the pardons for the Jordis is a positive sign for the rest of the Catalan pro-independence leaders who also have appeals against their pardons pending. They are: former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras, and former ministers Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa. The cases of the ERC representatives are in the phase of admitting evidence, and among the requests made by their lawyer Marc Marsal is for the case of lieutenant colonel Antonio Tejero, convicted for the failed Spanish military coup in 1981, to be included. With this step, the lawyer wants to refute the Cs argument that the motive of "public utility" - as a justification for the pardoning - had never been used and in the case of Tejero, it was argued by the military court that requested that he be pardoned.
As for the ex-speaker Carme Forcadell, and former ministers Josep Rull and Joaquim Forn, the court already closed the review of the appeals against their pardons in May, because of the change in the Spanish Penal Code and the elimination of the offence of sedition. In the case of Forcadell, Vox and Cs have filed an appeal against the closure.
Upon hearing the news, the current president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, tweeted: "Pardons have never been the option of @omnium because there is no crime. We will not be distracted: the violation of fundamental rights is permanent and, as @jcuixart said, the fight is collective and ongoing. For amnesty, self-determination and independence."