Supreme Court applies amnesty to former minister under Puigdemont and other independence leaders

The Supreme Court has granted amnesty to a minister in Carles Puigdemont's government for the first time.

ERC's Meritxell Serret, who held the position of minister of agriculture under the administration that held the 2017 independence referendum, has been granted amnesty.

Based on the "strong" ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it was "inevitable" that the Supreme Court would take this step, Esquerra Republicana said in a statement.

The party now hopes the amnesty will be applied to the rest of the cases still open.

In April 2023, the Catalan High Court sentenced Serret to a year of disqualification and a fine of €12,000 for her part in organizing the October 1, 2017, referendum.

The Supreme Court has also applied the amnesty law to the cases and sentences of the members of the parliament bureau of 2017.

Lluís Maria Corominas, Anna Simó, Ramona Barrufet, and Lluís Guinó, who were sentenced in 2023 by the Catalan High Court to four months disqualification and a fine of €1,200 for a crime of disobedience. 

The sentence was appealed to the Supreme Court, which suspended its processing pending whether the amnesty law was declared constitutional.

Additionally, former parliament speaker Roger Torrent and also former members of the bureau Josep Costa, Eusebi Campdepadrós, and Adriana Delgado, who all held their positions after the 2017 independence attempt, have had the amnesty law applied to their cases.

The members of the Bureau had been charged with disobedience, the Catalan High Court had acquitted them, and the prosecution had appealed.

The former mayor of Sabadell, Maties Serracant, and three other activists, have also been amnestied. Serracant had been convicted of disobedience, while the activists had been convicted of public disorder.