CATALONIA -- Catalan News Agency - Extreme right organisation files a criminal complaint against Catalan President for sedition and rebellion
Catalan News Agency - Extreme right organisation files a criminal complaint against Catalan President for sedition and rebellion
Extreme right organisation files a criminal complaint against Catalan President for sedition and rebellion
CNA
Barcelona (ACN).- Manos Limpias, a
Spanish extreme right-wing organisation, presented on Wednesday before
Catalonia’s High Court (TSJC) a criminal complaint against the President
of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, for the charges of perverting the
course of justice, disobeying judicial authority, rebellion and
sedition. According to the plaintiffs, the Catalan President is using
all means available to achieve Catalonia’s independence. The far-right
union notably mentions the creation of new ‘state-structures’,
disobeying the Constitutional Court and giving statements that point
towards holding a consultation vote and violating the Spanish
Constitution. In the complaint, Manos Limpias is demanding Mas to be
interrogated as a suspect, while several Catalan politicians would be
witnesses. The organisation is also requesting to examine recent decrees
and agreements passed in Catalonia, as well as the Catalan budget since
2010, as they believe certain items were established to hold a
self-determination vote. Manos Limpias is a trade union
of public employees, led by Miguel Bernad, who used to be the Secretary
General of the extreme right party Fuerza Nueva and was close to
Franco’s Regime member Blas Piñar.
The 85 pages-long document, to which the ACN had
access, based its legal argumentation on the consideration that several
decrees, declarations and agreements passed in Catalonia in the past
years are devices overlooking the Spanish Constitution and designed to
achieve independence, consequently segregating a part of Spain from the
rest of the state, which would be a crime of rebellion or sedition.
The ‘Declaration of Sovereignty’ and ‘state-structures’ are devices to achieve independence
Among such steps towards independence, Manos Limpias paid particular attention to the Catalan Parliament’s ‘Declaration of Sovereignty’,
which was passed in January 2013. The Declaration marked “the beginning
of a process by which the citizens of Catalonia will be able to choose
their political future as a people”. It also pointed out that Catalonia
had traditionally had its own self-government institutions and laws
until they were abolished in 1714. The Constitutional Court of Spain
temporarily suspended the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in May 2013,
following an appeal from the Spanish Government.
The National Transition Advisory Council, which was
officially created to “identify and analyse all available legal
alternatives for the transition process”, was also mentioned by the
plaintiffs, along with newly-created so-called ‘state structures’, for
instance Catalonia's own Tax Administration and public bank.
Mas is advocating the violation of the Constitutional framework
The extreme right-wing organisation believes that Mas
has committed a crime of perversion of justice as he is advocating and
leading to a violation of the Constitutional framework, as well as
disobeying the Constitutional Court with acts and statements that point
towards the self-determination vote taking place. The trade union takes
such an action even though the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration was
suspended and it was repeatedly stated by the Spanish Authorities that
sovereignty belonged to Spaniards as a whole. The complaint, filed by a
lawyer in Madrid to avoid being “pressured” against it, according to the
organisation, also regards the agreement reached on a specific date and
question to hold the self-determination vote. Furthermore, the
complaint also takes into account the letters Mas sent to international
leaders in the past months and considers them as acts and intentions
violating the Constitution.
In addition to questioning Mas, the plaintiffs are demanding that the
main politicians in Catalonia give testimonies as witnesses: the
President of Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party ERC, Oriol Junqueras;
the President and the Vice-President of the Catalan Parliament, Núria de
Gispert and Anna Simó respectively; the leaders Catalan Green Socialist
Party (ICV), Joan Herrera and Laia Ortiz; the Parliamentary
Spokesperson for radical left-wing and independence party CUP, David
Fernández; the Parliamentary Spokesperson for the governing Centre-Right
Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) led by Mas, Jordi Turull; the
Catalan Government Spokesperson and Minister for the Presidency,
Francesc Homs; and the President and Vice-President of the National
Transition Advisory Council, Carles Viver Pi-Sunyer and Núria Bosch
respectively.
Examining the Catalan budget, agreements, and decrees
They have also requested that several agreements passed by the
Parliament be scrutinised, for instance the ‘Declaration of
Sovereignty’, the decree which enabled the creation of the National
Transition Advisory Council, the agreement establishing a date and specific question for the consultation vote,
the budget of the Catalan Government since 2010 where items were
established for the consultation vote, as well as contracts with
entities and “lobbies” to internationalise the Catalonia’s
self-determination process. Finally, they have demanded the
municipalities of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona to report on
whether they have lent their municipal registers for the census to hold
the self-determination consultation vote.
The complaint is “a popular clamour of the Spanish society” for the organisation
In statements to ACN, the leader of the organisation, Miguel Bernad
said that the complaint against the President of the Catalan Government
was “a popular clamour of the Spanish society”. “What is happening
cannot be tolerated” he explained, before accusing the Spanish Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Government of acting with “complete and
utter passivity”.
In any case, Manos Limpias is expecting that
the TSJC will reject its complaint since “everyone knows” this court
“is contaminated” since it is based in Barcelona. “We will see where
they set the bond and if they throw it away we will take it further” he
said. If such a thing happens, the organisation is ready to follow the
procedure they followed against Juan Maria Atutxa case, when the
President of the Basque Parliament refused to dissolve the parliamentary
group Sozialista Abertzaleak. Back then, Manos Limpias presented an
appeal to the Second Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court.
More on
The Catalan President, Artur Mas (centre), on Wednesday, at the second
meeting of the National Alliance for the Right to Self-Determination (by
R. Garrido)
