Protests against the king or in favor of Pablo Hasél: the other cases that have been left out of the amnesty

MadridIn recent days, the amnesty has returned to the forefront of political news following the ECJ's endorsement and the six applications of the law made by the Supreme Court. Despite this, the pardon has not yet reached everyone. Beyond the well-known cases of the leaders of the 'Procés', who continue to await the Constitutional Court, there are other independentists who judges from both Madrid and Catalonia have excluded from the scope of the law. Unlike Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, who have been excluded due to a convoluted argument by Pablo Llarena and Manuel Marchena regarding embezzlement, the other cases have not benefited because the justice system has considered that they had no connection with the independence movement.

Two boycotts of Societat Civil Catalana

The latest to be excluded were eight pro-independence activists who were convicted twenty days ago for boycotting an event by Societat Civil Catalana (SCC) to honor Miguel de Cervantes at the University of Barcelona in 2018. The sentence alleged that the ideology and motivation of the protest were “absolutely irrelevant”, although it did appreciate the aggravating factor of ideological discrimination.

The convicted have filed an appeal, which ARA has accessed, once again demanding amnesty. The lawyer for Alerta Solidària argues that SCC was an entity created to “respond” to the Process and that the “ideological antagonism” between the Spanish-supporting entity and the pro-independence supporters is a “paradigmatic manifestation” of the “broad underlying political conflict” that amnesty “seeks to pacify”.

On the other hand, a year and a half ago the Barcelona Court confirmed that it also did not grant amnesty to a young man convicted for a protest in March 2017 against the presence of SCC at the Autonomous University, in which a tent was destroyed and a Spanish flag was burned. The sentence highlighted that the objective was to prevent in an “arbitrary and unjustified” manner a “liberal public debate”, although it did admit that SCC wanted to “uteriorize its ideas” about the Process.

Protests in Caldes de Malavella and Valls

A judge from Santa Coloma de Farners rejected applying the law to four investigated individuals for the protests in July 2023 in Caldes de Malavella against the presence of Felipe VI at the Princess of Girona Foundation awards. The magistrate denied them amnesty because he considers it was an “anti-monarchist demonstration” that had “no connection” with independentism. His defense justified that it was not for being a monarchy, but for being Spanish, but the Girona Court blocked his path justifying that the “rejection” of the Royal Family “can be shared” by people who are not independentists, “such as communists or voters of En Comú Podem”.

And in December 2024, a court in Tarragona denied the amnesty to journalist Carles Heredia and another woman accused of attacking authority and causing injuries for the protest against the presence of Vox in Valls during the campaign for the February 2021 elections.

Protests for the arrest of Pablo Hasél

Also excluded from the amnesty were five individuals investigated for protests in Vic following the arrest of Pablo Hasél, which ended with the assault and destruction of the Mossos police station. The Girona Court justified that the amnesty “is not intended to accommodate all acts supported by the independence movement”, but rather requires a “deep connection” between the events and the Procés.

A protester imprisoned for the protest against Jusapol

Who also could not benefit from the amnesty is Abel Mora, the young anarchist who went to prison the same day that Congress definitively approved the law. He was convicted for the assault on an attendee at the Jusapol event in November 2018 that honored the agents of 1-O. Once on the metro on the way home, he encountered a man carrying a Spanish flag and a t-shirt from a neo-Nazi music group. Abel Mora's companion – who has disappeared – pushed him from behind from the top of the stairs and he rolled down to the platform. He was convicted as an co-author because the sentence holds that he was guarding the area.

Eulàlia Reguant for not answering Vox

The Supreme Court has not only refused to amnesty embezzlement. Two years ago, the high court avoided applying the rule to Eulàlia Reguant, who was sentenced to a fine of 13,500 euros for not responding to Vox during the trial of the Procés, alleging that her act did not serve to “show support” for independence, but rather was a “disobedience to the orders given by the court”.

Laura Borràs for the Institute of Catalan Literature

Laura Borràs was also excluded in the conviction for prevarication and document falsification. She argued that she had an “intensely independentist profile” and that she had worked in a government with a “clearly pro-independence vocation”, but the Supreme Court replied that her conduct did not “fall within the context of the Procés”. Ten days ago, the Spanish government granted her a partial pardon to prevent her from having to go to prison.

Santi Vila for the goods of Sixena

Finally, Santi Vila, who was Minister of Culture with Carles Puigdemont and resigned before the declaration of independence, requested amnesty for the Sixena assets case. The Barcelona judge dismissed it because she considered that the requirements of the law were not met "neither specifically nor globally".

Spanish police officers

Besides independence activists, there have also been police officers denied amnesty. The most relevant case is that of four National Police officers accused of a crime of assault for having gouged out Roger Español's eye with a rubber ball. The Barcelona Court of Appeal argued that the police charges at the Ramon Llull School in Barcelona are not covered by the amnesty, which excludes “wilful acts” that caused the “loss or uselessness” of an organ or sense. At the same time, it pardoned Roger Español, who was accused of a crime of assault against agents. The trialwill start in a month.

Likewise, last October, Irídia reported that the Barcelona Court of Appeal had revoked the amnesty in the case investigating the injury of a person who was hit by a foam projectile in the leg on October 18, 2019, during the protests following the ruling on the Catalan independence process. The court justified that the trial must be held to determine if there was degrading treatment, which is one of the exceptions to the amnesty.