The sedition reform, an ongoing -and yet unknown- way forward

BarcelonaAt least until next week, the Supreme Court will not rule on the third degree of political prisoners and, as El País reported yesterday, everything points to the fact that it will do so to revoke their regime of semi-freedom - which only Dolors Bassa and Carme Forcadell enjoy, at the time being. If this scenario is fulfilled and the high court also ends up taking a stand against the pardon of the prisoners - despite the fact that the Spanish government would have the last word - the best option to leave jail early would be the reform of the crime of sedition, since the PSOE rejects an amnesty law for now. The modification of the Penal Code is a path that Jaume Asens - of the comuns - opened, despite the fact that at this point the ball is in the court of the Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, who promised to have a draft finished before the end of the year. Once the reform is approved, will the prisoners be released immediately? Not exactly. It would depend on several variables.

The content of the reform

First of all, the ministry would have to clarify what the reform would look like: if it opted to reformulate the wording of the crime to clarify the concept of violence, or if it only opted for a reduction of penalties - the latter is the scenario that would be on the table at this point according to some media. In this case, they would have to specify how, and penal expert Marc Molins points out that one option would be to "fragment the precept in order to give the appropriate response to each scenario". The first scenario is the one defended by the comuns, despite the fact that their first option was to eliminate the crime. In the summer, Asens put his proposal on the minister's table, but since then there have been few talks. And now, talks have come to a halt.

The tempos

If Campo takes the draft bill to the council of ministers before the end of the year, could the reform come before Feb. 14, the election date? Jaume Asens is optimistic and assures that it will. However, the schedule is tight. Before facing Congress, a report would have to be requested from the State Council. Once in the lower house, if it is processed through ordinary channels, it would take at least a month, but the comuns are confident that the process could be shortened by making it a single reading - the PSOE would have to accept this. Afterwards, the Supreme Court would have to review the sentence of the independence bid. Although expert criminal law professor Esther Giménez-Salinas points out that it has to be a relatively "immediate" procedure, it could take a few weeks. The parties would have to present their briefs to the court to ask it to modify the sentence taking into account the Penal Code, and the Supreme Court would have to decide whether - and in what terms - to proceed with the revision. "If a court has a request for sentence review, it is a priority. And if a release depends on it, even more so", says Molins.

How do would this affect the sentences?

If the reform ends up being as requested by the comuns - and it is specified that, in order for there to be sedition, weapons must be used -, the Supreme Court would have to issue a new sentence annulling the sentence for sedition. Now, if Campo opts for a reduction of sentences by establishing, for example, penal subtypes, then the sentences imposed on the pro-independence leaders would have to be revised and "recalculated", as penalist Laura Parés points out. In addition, there are prisoners who are also convicted of embezzlement, and the penalties for this crime would also condition the calculation.

Would it affect the exiles?

If the choice to specify the concept of violence is made in the reform, Asens defends that the exiles to whom only sedition is attributed - without embezzlement - would no longer have a case pending, and could return without entering prison. However, the experts point out that if the reform involves a reduction in sentences, then if they return to Catalunya they will be tried under the new Penal Code. Furthermore, they stress that the Supreme Court could order provisional detention - allocating a risk of escape - until the trial.