The Public Ministry has registered an appeal against the order issued by the investigating judge of the Catalan independence process, who decided to apply a crime of disobedience.
The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office has asked to prosecute former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for the new crime of aggravated public disorder, in addition to the charges of disobedience and embezzlement, local media reported on Tuesday.
Specifically, the prosecutors in the case have registered an appeal against the order issued last week by the investigating judge of the Catalan independence process, Pablo Llarena, who decided to apply a crime of disobedience, which does not usually carry a prison sentence, only of disqualification.
In the document, the Public Ministry requests that changes be made to the prosecution of both the former independence leader and the former Catalan councilors Toni Comin and Clara Ponsati —all of whom fled from Justice after having organized a self-determination referendum in Catalonia in 2017—, since they consider that the exclusion of the crime of aggravated public disorder “it is not adjusted to law” and “limits the arrest warrants and imprisonment of the defendants.”
In this sense, the Prosecutor’s Office insists that the order of the Supreme Court judge decriminalizes what happened in the so-called ‘proces’, since disobedience is punishable by a fine and disqualification of up to three years in the case of the authorities, while the crime of aggravated public disorder carries penalties of between three and five years in prison.
“Serious disturbances of public order”
“It is evident that the facts consisting of serious disturbances of public order that the sentence declares proven have not been decriminalized, so that, if the crime of sedition disappears, its appropriate regulatory framework is public disorder,” the document underlines, arguing that “sedition and public disorder are not heterogeneous criminal offenses, but closely related crimes.”
Finally, the Prosecutor’s Office explains that the objective of the appeal is to include the criminal offense of public disorder in article 557.1 and 2 of the Penal Code in the arrest warrants and admission to prison of the “rebel defendants”.
However, it excludes from this classification the former minister Lluis Puig, who is only charged with acts constituting disobedience and embezzlement, and the general secretary of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) party, Marta Rovira, whose charge is exclusively for a crime of disobedience .
At the same time, the State Attorney’s Office has also appealed Llarena’s decision, asking him to reform his own order so that Puigdemont is prosecuted for aggravated public disorder and embezzlement of public funds.
Source: RT
