He must withdraw the Spanish arrest warrant for the exiled former Catalan minister Clara Ponsatí, even if he claims it is only "to take her statement", and he must inform the European Parliament of the cancellation of the request to lift her immunity as an MEP, processed in 2020. These are the two actions that the lawyer Gonzalo Boye has demanded of Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, in an appeal for amendment of the judicial decree with which the judge controversially brought up to date the charges against Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the former government ministers, which he released on January 12th, within hours of the entry into force of the reformed Spanish Penal Code, in which the crime of sedition has disappeared. Judge Llarena withdrew the accusation of sedition against all the politicians in exile and in the case of Ponsatí, only accuses her of a crime of disobedience, which cannot punished by prison sentences, but rather, a ban on holding public office for up to 20 months. As for president Puigdemont and former ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, they are charged with the crime of misuse of public funds for the spending on the 1st October 2017 referendum. Ponsatí's situation is similar to that of ERC general secretary Marta Rovira, exiled in Switzerland. Now, judge Llarena only accuses her of disobedience and orders her arrest if she sets foot in the Spanish state, "only for the purposes of taking her statement".
In the appeal, to which ElNacional.cat has had access, Boye states that Clara Ponsatí "wants to make it clear that she has not committed any crime" and that the actions described in this court document on what the Catalan government did in the fall of 2017 are "simply unduly criminalized political acts". Ponsatí also states that she shares the allegations that Puigdemont and Comín will present. In the case of both, as of Lluís Puig (who has changed his lawyer and is now represented by Miquel Sàmper), judge Llarena asserts that the attenuated variation of misuse of funds, a legislative wording that ERC negotiated with the PSOE government at the last minute; rather, he accuses them of the aggravated crime of misuse of funds, which can be punished by 12 years' prison in the case of Puigdemont because he is accused of responsibility for "misusing" the entire expenses of the 2017 referendum, estimated at 5.3 million euros by the Barcelona court number 13. In the case of Comín and Puig, the heaviest "aggravated" penalty would not be applied to them, since the expenses attributed to them do not exceed 250,000 euros. They are accused of having approved one of the five invoices to pay the electoral census mail-out to the Unipost company, which in total amounts to 1 million euros.
Disobedience, time-barred
In his appeal, Boye demands that Llarena withdraw the arrest warrant for Ponsatí in Spain because "she has not even been formally summonsed" to appear in court to take a statement, nor has he tried a "less onerous" measure. And, in addition, he reminds her that the former Catalan minister of culture is a member of the European Parliament and, therefore, requires the permission of the European Parliament, that is to say, a request for the lifting of her parliamentary immunity to the European chamber, in order to be arrested. In his decree, the Supreme Court judge indicates that he expects to issue new arrest warrants for Puigdemont, Comín and Lluís Puig pending the response of the European courts.
In addition, the lawyer affirms that Ponsatí was "never" prosecuted for the crime of disobedience, as stated in the judicial resolution of March 21st, 2018. For this reason, Boye affirms that Llarena committed a "series of illegalities ” and “illegally agreed to her arrest”. In addition, the lawyer indicates that the crime of disobedience is time-barred, since more than 5 years have passed since the events (specifically, he indicates a period of 5 years and 4 months), which is the statutory expiry time for these minor crimes. The most recent action with regard to disobedience charges, he states, was the withdrawal of the first European Arrest Warrant, on December 5th, 2017, and in subsequent warrants, only the crime of sedition was included.
As a result of all this, he asks the judge to withdraw the Spanish arrest warrant for Clara Ponsatí to avoid the "illegal" arrest of Ponsatí by Spanish police and also, "without delay", to "bring to the attention of the European Parliament that he withdraws the request to lift immunity" made in his resolution of February 4th, 2020, which, the lawyer demands, must also be left without effect.