The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has notified Vicent Sanchis, the director of TV3 (Catalan public TV channel) that he may incur "possible liability, including criminal charges" if he collaborates with the preparation or organisation of the referendum on 1st October, in his capacity as the one with maximum responsibility for the Catalan broadcaster, El Nacional has learnt. This warning includes the broadcasting of the institutional campaign advertising the referendum, which should be suspended by order of the Constitutional Court (TC).
Sanchis received the personal communication from the court about the suspension of the decree of complementary measures of the Law of the Referendum approved by the Catalan government, and which the Constitutional Court has cautiously suspended after accepting the appeal presented by the Executive of Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister. The literal text of the interlocutor makes this warning:
"I advise you of your duty to prevent or stop any initiative that involves ignoring or circumventing the agreed suspension. In particular, to refrain from initiating, processing, informing and/or dictating, within the scope of your respective competencies, any agreement or action that allows the preparation and/or celebration of the referendum on the self-determination in Catalonia, regulated in the Decree object of this challenge, with the disclosure of the possible responsibilities, including criminal, in which you may incur by not responding to this requirement"
Notifications to more than a thousand public officials
The TC decided that the agreement be notified to more than 1,000 Catalan public officials: the president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, and all the members of his government; the secretary of the government, Víctor Cullell; 60 senior officials from the Catalan administration, among them Sanchis, the director of Catalunya Ràdio, Saül Gordillo, the general director of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), Pere Soler, and the chief of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, among others, as well as the 947 mayors of the towns of Catalonia. In the case of the latter, the notifications have been made by the delegation of the central government in Catalonia.
The TC formally admitted the proceedings last Thursday of the appeal from the Spanish government against the Law of the Referendum, the resolution of the Catalan Parliament about the electoral union, the decree calling for the referendum of 1st October, and the complementary rules. This Tuesday, the High Court also formally admitted the appeal against the Law of Transitional Jurisprudence, which has also been suspended provisionally.