Carles Puigdemont has published a UN Human Rights Committee resolution saying Spain violated his political rights by suspending him as a member of the Catalan Parliament in 2018 when he was charged with rebellion before being sentenced. Referring to the statement, the spokesman notes that it is “the first resolution affecting a member of the Catalan pro-independence movement in exile”. He sees it as a “condemnation” of the state for “violating” its political rights.
The judgment acknowledged a violation of Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and held that the suspension prior to the conviction “was not based on reasons provided for in legislation which are reasonable and objective”. The committee, a body of independent experts that analyzes compliance with international treaties, warns that the “extraordinary suspension of public office” imposed before a conviction is found requires “stricter” requirements than those that apply after conviction. Puigdemont, current MEP for the junts, says in a video that the UN body’s reasoning represents a “devastating” setback for the Spanish legal system. “It is time for Spain to make decisions now. It’s been too long. Other penalties have already been imposed on Spain and I think there will be more to come. And Spain does nothing,” he accuses.
The resolution, collected by agency Europa Press, goes on to say that in the case of the former president, “an application of domestic law automatically results in the suspension of elected officials for alleged crimes based on public and peaceful facts before…” “One sentence closes an individual assessment of the proportionality of the measure” and therefore does not meet the requirements of adequacy and objectivity required by international regulations.
The committee instructs Spain to “take all necessary measures to prevent similar violations from happening in the future” and requires it to report back within 180 days on the measures it has taken to implement the ruling . The report adds that the state has failed to demonstrate that the use of the crime of rebellion and the Article of the Criminal Procedure Code (Lecrim), which governs prosecution, “meets the foreseeability requirement” required by Article 25 of the Covenant.
In August, the committee already ruled in the same vein with regard to former government vice-president Oriol Junqueras and former city councilors Raul Romeva, Josep Turull and Josep Rull, finding that their rights had been violated when they were previously suspended from their public offices have been convicted.
One of the 15 members of the committee who signed the opinion has added a partially dissenting opinion, confirming that Puigdemont had not exhausted internal legal options before filing this complaint – which would formally prevent it from being admitted – and in which he considers that he has not suffered a violation of Article 25 of the Covenant, but that he “willfully disregarded the law and the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court”.
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Puigdemont also denounced that the Constitutional Court (TC) issued precautionary measures to prevent him from undergoing a remote investigative session, as he planned to do to avoid arrest if he returned to Spain. However, the Committee does not share Puigdemont’s arguments on this point, pointing out that “there is no right to the exercise of certain political rights or a right of return to the exercise of those rights – even if this is the reason for the refusal to extradite or deportation”. person could be”. – especially when the physical presence requirement aims to protect the political rights of other parliamentarians and indirectly their electorate.”
In this sense, the Committee adds that “even while evading justice, the author could exercise various political rights outside the territory of the State party, including his candidacy as a deputy” for Parliament and until he took office in plenary through a proxy vote could be suspended. .
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