Two months after the Supreme Court disqualified the then Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García OrtizFor the crime of disclosing classified information, the Spanish government is processing its first request for a full pardon. According to reports The Country And the Spanish government has confirmed that the Ministry of Justice has already asked the Supreme Court to issue a report on the pardon after it was requested by two private individuals. This is the first pardon request since García Ortiz was convicted for leaking the email in which Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner, Alberto González Amador, admitted to tax fraud. It's worth remembering that, despite the outcome of the case, Pedro Sánchez's government and the president himself have consistently stood by the former Attorney General. The Spanish government maintains that García Ortiz is innocent, even though he has been convicted, and has even questioned the procedure behind what it considers an "unjust" conviction. The Public Prosecutor's Office, in fact, has already has asked that the conviction be overturned And this Tuesday, more than 150 legal experts, including former Supreme Court magistrates such as José Antonio Martín Pallín and former National Court judge Baltasar Garzón, signed a manifesto in which they criticize the sentence "Disturbing" regarding Ortiz. For the moment, the Spanish government has reacted cautiously to the pardon request from two individuals. "We'll see what the Supreme Court says in this case, as they are the ones who have been asked for information [about the pardon]," stated the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres.

The Superior Prosecutor's Office of Catalonia has opposed pardoning the former president of the Parliament Laura Borràs, sentenced to four and a half years in prison and 13 years of disqualification for malfeasance and falsification of documents when he headed the Institution of Catalan Letters (ILC). Among other reasons, because Borràs's conviction is due to "an attitude of abuse of power" for favoring the economic benefit of a friend. "We are facing a crime that falls under the concept of administrative corruption and, therefore, hardly susceptible to benefiting from the right of pardon," says the prosecutor's report. It also reproaches him for claiming "without any shame, to have been the victim of judicial persecution" for his political ideas: "He presents himself as a victim of lawfare who has committed the crime with absolute abuse of authority and contempt for the law."

The Public Prosecutor's Office supports the suspension of the prison sentence of former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Laura Borràs, while the pardon petition filed by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) is processed. The former president of Junts was also sentenced to four and a half years in prison for contract splitting while she was president of the Institution of Catalan Letters (ILC). In a statement, the Public Prosecutor's Office states: "The Public Prosecutor's Office, in order to avoid possible harm to the convicted person in the event of a favorable resolution to the pardon petition, does not oppose the suspension of the imposed prison sentence." In this regard, the Public Prosecutor's Office emphasizes that this suspension must be linked to the TSJC submitting the pardon petition to the Spanish government. The pardon measure would annul the prison sentence, but not the disqualification and fine.

Former Catalan Parliament Speaker Laura Borràs has asked the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) to process her pardon and forward it to the Spanish government, which will then have to decide whether or not to grant it. The judges themselves had already proposed reducing the four-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed on Borràs for the splitting of contracts at the Catalan Institution of Letters (ILC) with a partial pardon, and now her defense team is asking the court to suspend the sentence until the Spanish government makes a statement. This request represents a reversal of the script by the former Catalan Parliament Speaker, who previously said she would not make the request.

The Supreme Court This week, the sentence of four and a half years in prison was confirmed -in addition to 13 years of disqualification and a fine of 36,000 euros- for Laura Borràs for the crimes of prevarication and falsification of documents in the case of the Institution of Catalan Letters. In the sentence that the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) wrote almost two years ago, however, Pardon was recommended for the former speaker of the Parliament, a pardon that has already been endorsed by the Public Prosecutor's Office and which is the decision of the Spanish government. Would Pedro Sánchez's executive be willing to do so? This Saturday, the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, spoke out on the matter, refusing to grant this measure of clemency in cases related to corruption. In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio and asked about this issue, Díaz replied: "These exceptional measures should not be accompanied by issues linked, presumably, to corruption."

"Dear friends, if you see this video it is because the state apparatus has decided to limit my freedom". "Unfortunately the judge's decision has been to deprive us of our freedom, an act that does not respond to any principle of justice but rather attempts to frighten and punish us". On October 16th, 2017, Spain's High Court imprisoned the leaders of Òmnium and ANC, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, and Spain once again had Catalan political prisoners. Despite having the lowest sentence of all those who were tried in the Supreme Court, the Jordis are, in fact, those who have spent the most time behind bars: 1,346 days, or what is the same, 3 years, 8 months and 1 week between the prisons of Soto del Real and Lledoners (in addition to visiting others during transfers). They have served 41% of the sentence of 9 years in prison that will remain on their records.

Pedro Sánchez's time for pardons has come. More than two and a half years after the sentence, he will have to get off the fence if he wants to make a gesture towards political prisoners, after the Supreme Court settled the process and transferred the final decision to the cabinet. As expected, the court presided over by Manuel Marchena is opposed to granting the measure of grace for all those convicted, a fact that already conditions the Spanish government because it will not be able to grant a full pardon. This decision comes in the middle of political debate on the measure of grace because the head of the executive has already hinted that it will grant them. "The Constitution includes a time for punishment and a time for concord. The government will make the decision for the benefit of harmony and coexistence," he said on Wednesday during the control session in Congress.

The State Attorney has not dispelled uncertainty about the pardon for political prisoners and has not taken a position on whether or not to grant it. In the report requested by the Supreme Court, which El Español has advanced and which ARA has had access to, the organism, which depends on the Ministry of Justice, argues that stating its opinion would be "anticipating or determining the sense of a decision that corresponds to the Spanish government" and chooses not to get involved. "The offended party that issues the report is the general administration of the State, of which both the body that has to formulate the proposal for a pardon - the Minister of Justice - and the body that has to agree to it - the Council of Ministers - are part," emphasises the State lawyer Rosa María Seoane, who acted as prosecutor during the trial.

Carme Forcadell asks the PSOE to show " bravery" and move forward with the pardons. In an interview to the ACN, the former president of the Parliament calls for the socialists to work to move forward this measure of grace, which the Spanish government has yet to resolve. At this point, she is waiting for the Supreme Court to send its reports -the State Attorney's Office has not yet sent its report, while the Prosecutor's Office has already expressed its opposition-. Forcadell, however, admits that it is "complicated" that the pardons go ahead because she considers that Unidas Podemos has "relative strength". "I have my doubts, because the situation, the context and the majorities are what they are, and Podemos has relative strength", she says, although she does not see it as "impossible" that the Spanish Government will endorse them.