The Supreme Court is reactivating the Democratic Tsunami case, just as the pre-campaign for Catalonia's snap election has got underway. The court's investigating judge for the case of the pro-independence protest platform, Susana Polo, has called the Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont and the Republican Left (ERC) deputy Ruben Wagensberg as persons under investigation for terrorism offences to give voluntary statements by video conference between June 17th and 21st, as reported by the court this Monday. President Puigdemont is still a member of the European Parliament, and to require him to testify, the Supreme Court would have to request a waiver of his immunity from the EU chamber; therefore, the investigator is offering him the ability to do so voluntarily. In addition, Puigdemont's arrest warrant for the 2017 independence process case remains in force in Spain, and cannot be suspended until the amnesty law comes into force, which is expected to be at the end of May. The Supreme Court has thus issued this subpoena, although it is centred on a voluntary statement by video conference, which has clear political implications: by June 10th at the latest, the new Catalan Parliament must be formed, at which time president Puigdemont must choose whether he retains his seat as an outgoing member of the European Parliament or whether, as he has affirmed, he will return to Catalonia if he has the support of the majority of Parliament to be invested as president once again.
In the resolution, the investigating judge indicates that the requested statements will be made by video conference and that the two politicians will have to attend accompanied by a lawyer, once their whereabouts and addresses are known. To this end, the judge has processed a European Investigation Order (EIO) and an International Rogatory Letter for a criminal matter, through EUROJUST.
The Catalan election
The investigator asserts that she is taking this step after the criminal court of the Supreme Court accepted, in February, that it is competent to investigate Puigdemont for the crime of terrorism in the Tsunami case. However, MEP Puigdemont and MP Wagensberg, the latter having gone to live in Switzerland, will have to decide whether or not they want to appear before the Supreme Court. In fact, recently the Civil Guard informed the National Audience judge who has also been investigating the Tsunami case, Manuel García-Castellón, that he did not find the Republican Left deputy at his home in Spain.
In addition, the criminal case has been reactivated, just after Puigdemont has presented his candidacy for the presidency of Catalonia in the May 12th election, and that he is changing his address from Waterloo (Belgium) to Northern Catalonia (France) in order to campaign.
Tsunami "leader"
Spain's highest criminal court considers that there is a prima facie case to consider Puigdemont as "leader" of Tsunami Democràtic, the anonymous social-media-based platform that called for mass mobilizations against the Supreme Court's verdict convicting the Catalan pro-independence leaders in October 2019. In particular, the court maintains that he could have stopped these mobilizations and did not. The main mobilization on which the case is centred was that at Barcelona-El Prat airport, on October 14th, 2019, which the judge interprets as a protest that sought to disturb the public peace.
The public prosecutor's office, on the other hand, considers that that there is no evidence that either president Puigdemont or the other eleven people investigated in the National Audience committed crimes of terrorism, and in the most extreme scenario, they could be accused of the crime of public disorder.