The Supreme applies amnesty: ends the case of eight separatists

MadridThe Supreme Court has applied the amnesty law to eight people who were pending. The decision comes a week after the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, a ruling that the high court decided to tacitly await. Formally, it had suspended the processing of the four cases following the question of unconstitutionality that was filed in July 2024. The Constitutional Court's ruling, which did not favor him, arrived in October 2025, but nine months had to pass for the Supreme Court to have made a move. “The facts that gave rise to this procedure would not offer any doubt as to their subsumption in article 1 of the amnesty law. [...] The objective scope of application is therefore met,” conclude the four interlocutory orders. They are three protesters convicted of aggravated public disorder in the protests following the ruling of the trial of the Process, a mayor that attributed the powers of the schools to make possible the 1-O and the four members of the Parliament's Bureau – with Roger Torrent at the head – who were acquitted for having disobeyed the TC rulings.

It is not the first time the Supreme Court has applied the amnesty. The first to do so was Pablo Llarena on July 1, 2024. Although denied amnesty to Carles Puigdemont for the crime of embezzlement, he did admit that disobedience fell within the scope of the law and, therefore, he acquitted the former president of the Generalitat, as well as Toni Comín, Lluís Puig and Marta Rovira. “It is appropriate to declare that the scope of application of the law extends to actions and omissions susceptible of constituting the crime of disobedience,” he concluded. Now the resolutions are signed by Manuel Marchena, Carmen Lamela, Andrés Martínez Arrieta, Leopoldo Puente and Antonio del Moral.

Two demonstrators from Girona

The case of Abdessabour Al Youbi and Mohcine El Mesbay was the one the Supreme Court used to torpedo the diligent application of the amnesty. Both were sentenced to one and a half years in prison for aggravated public disorder during the protests of October 2019 in Girona, following the verdict of the Procés trial. Al Youbi filed an appeal, and before resolving it, the high court sent the amnesty to the Constitutional Court for the first time in a ruling that described the Procés as a "coup d'état" on several occasions.

Specifically, they were convicted of throwing stones at the Courts building located on Avinguda Ramón Folch. The sentence states that they were part of a group of about 300 people who threw "all kinds of objects and, in particular, stones or pieces of pavement." One stone injured a Mossos d'Esquadra officer, but it could not be proven who was responsible.

A protester from Barcelona

The third is Oriol Calvo, a young man from the Poble-sec neighborhood, who was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for the post-sentence protests of 2019 in Barcelona. Initially, he was convicted of attacking authority and aggravated public disorder, but the High Court of Justice of Catalonia acquitted him of the first offense. The sentence, which is based solely on the testimony of two Mossos agents, detailed that he threw stones at the police line. His defense replied that he was in the "wrong place" at the "wrong time." He was one of the seven young people who were about to go to prison before the amnesty law.

Maties Serracant, former mayor of Sabadell

Maties Serracant has also been exonerated, who was the mayor of Sabadell from July 2017 to June 2019. Weeks before October 1, he attributed to himself the powers regarding the authorization of the use of schools, being he who gave the green light to use them for the October 1 referendum: he was aware that this could generate responsibilities for the councilors in charge and he wanted to exempt them. He was sentenced to a fine of 1,800 euros and four months of disqualification for a crime of disobedience.

The Board of the Parliament of Roger Torrent

Finally, the Supreme Court has also applied the amnesty to the pro-sovereignty members of the Parliament's Bureau in the legislature after October 1st: Roger Torrent, Josep Costa, Eusebi Campdepadrós, and Adriana Delgado. All four were acquitted in November 2022 because the High Court of Justice of Catalonia considered that it was not proven that they "intended to disobey the mandates" of the Constitutional Court when they accepted the processing of resolutions on self-determination and against the monarchy.

Subsequently, the Prosecutor's Office appealed the acquittal to the Supreme Court. However, later, with the amnesty coming into force, the public ministry admitted that they should be amnestied. Despite this, Josep Costa opposed it, alleging that the facts are not a crime: he argued that criminal justice "radically lacks jurisdiction over the votes, opinions, or expressions of will of parliamentarians in the exercise of their duties".

An outstanding case: the Granollers Three

Despite the four new developments, three young people are still awaiting the Supreme Court's decision: the Tres de Granollers, who were convicted of attacking Mossos d'Esquadra officers on October 1, 2020, during the third anniversary of October 1st. They were among the first to be amnestied, but a police officer filed an appeal with the Supreme Court: it was the first amnesty that had been granted and that a Mossos officer tried to overturn.

They were sentenced to between three and three and a half years in prison and a compensation of 76,000 euros for throwing stones at an anti-riot van during riots in the center of Barcelona. The agent who tried to overturn the amnesty is the one who suffered the injury, which the three independentists have always denied. He argued, precisely, that these injuries might not be included in the amnesty.

By the way, agents of the National Police and the Civil Guard also announced that they would do the same against the three young independentists who were convicted for the "Holi" protest against the JUSAPOL police union demonstration on September 29, 2018. However, they did not manage to formalize the appeal and, therefore, the amnesty became final.