The Catalan National Assembly denounces the Spanish Judiciary’s attack on democracy and calls to take to the streets on July 13, as amnesty law has not been applied to exiled president Carles Puigdemont, yet it was immediately applied to 46 Spanish police officers.
Today, in a press conference, Assemblea has exposed a judicial coup d’état in the application of the amnesty law. The Spanish Supreme Court has refused to grant amnesty to former President Carles Puigdemont, former councillors Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, all three still in exile, and former vice-president Oriol Junqueras.
However, amnesty has been granted to the 46 Spanish police officers accused of torture or inhumane treatment for their actions during the independence referendum of October 1st, 2017. To expose this attack on democracy and the need for separation of powers, Assemblea has called for a demonstration on Saturday, 13th July at 17 h in Barcelona, under the slogan “Rise up against the Spanish judges. Independence now”.
Assemblea’s president Lluís Llach, lawyer Pilar Rebaque and the coordinator of the Mobilisation Committee Elisenda Romeu, have criticised that the irregularities in the application of amnesty are a new attack against Catalonia’s self-determination movement.
For this reason, Llach has demanded that Catalan political parties who endorsed the Spanish government force the government to confront the judicial rebellion. “As representatives of civil society, we feel we have the right, and we have the obligation, to stand up against this violation of our rights”, he proclaimed.
At the same time, Catalan civil organisations Assemblea, Òmnium and Irídia have initiated proceedings acting as public and private prosecutors to challenge the court’s decision to grant amnesty to the Spanish police officers, stating that such brutality against civil society cannot go unpunished. Police brutality perpetrated by law enforcement against civil society violates Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and therefore, granting them amnesty represents a violation of that article by Spain.
Mobilisation abroad
Assemblea’s foreign assemblies will also demonstrate before the Spanish consulates and embassies in their respective countries, to expose the Spanish judiciary’s repression against the Catalan activists, and its manoeuvres to guarantee the impunity of the police officers who violently assaulted citizens peacefully voting.