Spain's top court backs amnesty for ex-president Quim Torra, Bernat Solé and Pau Juvillà

Spain's Constitutional Court has rejected three challenges from the Catalan High Court questioning the constitutionality of applying the amnesty law to former Catalan president Quim Torra, former minister Bernat Solé and former MP Pau Juvillà, all convicted of disobedience.

The challenges were dismissed based on the Constitutional Court's own precedent upholding the amnesty law. All three rulings included dissenting opinions.

In July last year, the Catalan High Court followed the Spanish Supreme Court's lead and referred a constitutional question to the Constitutional Court regarding the amnesty law.

The Catalan court did so in cases affecting pro-independence politicians Torra, Solé and Juvillà, all convicted of disobedience, as well as Catalan government officials Josep Maria Jové, Lluís Salvadó and Natàlia Garriga.

All proceedings were put on hold while the courts examined the constitutional questions, some of which were also referred to European courts.

The Catalan High Court argued that the amnesty law passed by Congress in 2024 could violate as many as six articles of the Spanish Constitution.

When referring the cases to the Constitutional Court, the Catalan High Court judges, including the then-president, Jesús María Barrientos, warned that the amnesty law represented "the negotiation of criminal law as a tool for social pacification" and "broke the separation of powers."

"The legislative branch cannot ignore the democratic principle of constitutional supremacy," they added.

Convictions

Former Catalan president Quim Torra was removed from his post and banned from public office for 15 months for refusing, for a second time, to remove a banner from the façade of the government headquarters in support of jailed pro-independence leaders in September 2019.

Bernat Solé was sentenced in 2022 to a one-year ban from holding public office and fined €16,800 for disobedience for "actively participating" in the organisation, promotion and holding of the 2017 independence referendum while he was mayor of Agramunt.

Former MP Pau Juvillà was convicted of disobedience for failing to remove yellow ribbons from a window of Lleida city hall during the campaign period of the April 2019 Spanish general election.