Punctual as ever, the president of the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC), Jesús Maria Barrientos, declared open the trial of the Member of the Parliament of Catalonia, also a member of the parliamentary Bureau, Pau Juvillà (CUP) at 10am sharp, just after the defendant had proclaimed his innocence and defended the freedom of expression outside the courtroom doors.
The case is centred on incidents during the 2019 election campaign; now, two years later, it reaches trial in the Catalan high court. Juvillà, immune from prosecution in lower courts because he is now an MP, was thus brought before the TSJC, after the Ciudadanos party laid a complaint about him during the election campaign, for which the prosecution is demanding 8 months of banning from office holding and a fine. Juvillà tried to annul the case, but the court declared that it was competent to try him. A court in Lleida sent the case up to the higher court when Juvillà won office. The TSJC is hearing the case today just a few days after it completed the hearing of - and threw out - the case of another CUP deputy, Laia Estrada, on a public disorder charge related to a 2018 anti-repression protest.
Before the judge, Pau Juvillà set out the facts. A simple narrative that has no more complexity than not removing yellow ribbons from a public building in an election period. Yellow ribbons - adopted in Catalonia as a symbol of support for those imprisoned and in exile due to the repression of the independence movement following the 2017 referendum - became a frequent target for attacks by anti-independence groups and parties, and during the 2019 election campaigns, complaints led to electoral commission orders to remove the ribbons from public buildings on the grounds that they were "partisan symbols". Most well known was the case of Catalan president Quim Torra who was eventually removed from office due to his reluctance to take down the symbols and a banner.
Now another politician faces a yellow ribbon case. Juvillà explained the events saying that "it was impossible to remove all the symbols", because, for example, even the CUP logo contains the Catalan pro-independence star. The deputy situated the events in a civil rights context: "We could not obey the request because it was an attack on fundamental rights."
The defendant recalled that the CUP hung yellow ribbons in their office at Lleida city council's Paeria building in December 2017, in protest at the imprisonment of independence movement leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, to denounce the "state of emergency" that he believes was being imposed on Catalonia.
Pau Juvillà entering Barcelona's Palace of Justice - Sergi Alcàzar
The CUP municipal representatives in the Catalan city of Lleida received three requests to take down the yellow ribbons. Some were directed to Francesc Gabarrell, spokesperson for the party. But Juvillà made it clear that everything received was considered by the municipal group and that this was how it was dealt with, both in the group and in party assemblies. And with this approach, the CUP decided not to remove the yellow ribbons that the electoral commission had ordered taken down because it "compromised and injured our ideology." "We could not allow and did not want our ideological lines to be damaged," Pau Juvillà said when asked by the public prosecutor. "We decided collectively in assembly not to remove the yellow ribbons. It directly injured our ideological freedom. They are symbols that define us as a political organization. We were unable to self-censor and limit our ideological freedom," he said.
The CUP received three requests and appealed them. While the third appeal was still in its resolution period, however, all the ribbons were removed: "One day when we were not there, the yellow ties were removed." Asked by his lawyer, Pau Juvillà clarified that the events took place during the campaign for the first of the two Spanish elections that year, on April 28th 2019, when the CUP did not even stand for election and had "zero participation".
Juvillà was quick and to the point in his testimony. His statement and cross-examination were followed by witnesses. The prosecutor demands that the MP be banned from holding office for eight months and should pay a fine. The trial was completed today and is now in the hands of the judge.