The democratic tsunami investigation will attract political attention in 2024. The new steps in the summary opened on this platform in front of the National Court – which led to protests in 2019 against the Supreme Court ruling that condemned the leaders of the trial – will have implications for the public debate that arises due to the accelerated processing of the amnesty law in the Cortes is already very excited. The case has experienced a certain slowdown as it has become entangled with the numerous movements, resources and writings promoted by those involved following the order of November 6 of Judge Manuel García-Castellón, which suspended the investigation, among other things, through the summons as Accused of terrorist crimes shocked others., by former President Carles Puidemont and the Secretary General of the ERC, Marta Rovira. But this tangle will begin to unravel in the coming weeks and months, and its impact is unpredictable.
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The parties know that there will be no decision in the tsunami case that cannot be exploited for or against their respective interests. This happened back in December, when details of the Guardia Civil investigation in question came to light, which remained secret from 2019 to 2023. Just 10 days ago, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, against whom the right has repeatedly brought charges over this matter, revealed that the platform distanced itself from terrorism due to its pacts with Junts and ERC: “Unfortunately, in this country we have two types of terrorism “We suffered ETA terrorism, we suffered jihadist terrorism.” And I don’t think they are comparable. [con Tsunami]“he said in an interview on Rac 1.
Everyone is now waiting for the country's highest judicial authorities to decide on the proceedings and thus on the future of the two well-known independence supporters Puigdemont and Rovira, both of whom are on the run from justice and foreseeable beneficiaries of the agreed amnesty law. between the PSOE and the Junts. These are the main fronts that are still open:
The appeal of the public prosecutor. The Criminal Chamber of the National Court of Justice must decide on the various appeals lodged against the order of November 6th of Judge García-Castellón, in charge of the Central Instructional Court 6. In addition to the pleadings submitted by several defendants, the court must respond to the harsh accusations of the prosecutor Miguel Ángel Carballo, who excludes the existence of terrorism and, after lifting the sedition charge, only considers crimes of public order. This implies that, if successful, the National Court would lose its jurisdiction and the case would be referred to the courts of Catalonia. The ministry also does not consider that the summary allows “to prove the existence of a criminal organization”, nor that there is “sufficient” evidence to sustain the allegations of Puigdemont and Rovira.
This appeal by the prosecutor worsened relations with the judge. Carballo even accused the García-Castellón court of delaying the processing of his brief to the criminal chamber, which was finally submitted to the court in mid-December.
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The highest. Two weeks after naming Puigdemont and Rovira as defendants, the investigating judge changed his strategy and decided to refer his investigation to the Supreme Court to deal with the case. Without waiting for the decision of the Criminal Chamber and with the resistance of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which has appealed against its decision, García-Castellón considered that the investigation required the implementation of a series of “trials” against the former president, which, however, are only being carried out could be decided by this Supreme Court because the former President (who is an MEP) and another person under investigation (Ruben Wagensberg, Member of Parliament) are qualified.
The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the tsunami case, thereby limiting the decision on whether to maintain or reject the case to key aspects of the investigation.
Ask for protection. The General Council of Justice (CGPJ) is keeping open the file, which was initiated after García-Castellón requested protection in November following criticism from the then Secretary of State for Justice, Tontxu Rodríguez, and the spokesperson of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Patricia Plaja, the accused the judge of wanting to “influence” the negotiations between the PSOE and Junts by naming Puigdemont and Rovira as defendants. After accepting the judge's request for processing, the CGPJ agreed to suspend its decision until the Supreme Court decides whether to take up the case, because if that court withholds the case, “the protection sought would be futile.”
At the same time, as Europa Press reports, the National Court has not yet resolved all the objections of the defendants against García-Castellón, whom they want to exclude from the proceedings in order to say a few words about the amnesty that he declared last October at a public Event: “I can only say two things as a citizen. First: Slavery is not prohibited in the Constitution, and yet it is not possible (and not expressly prohibited). And secondly, these gentlemen have said that they will do it again as soon as possible; So will this amnesty be the first of many others to come?
More tests. While we wait for the Supreme Court and the Criminal Chamber of the National Court to give their opinion, the case will continue to incorporate the new evidence that the investigating judge requested from the Guardia Civil after naming Puigdemont and Rovira as defendants. This included all the information he had requested from various institutions – such as Enaire, Spain's air traffic control manager; to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA); and the Emergency Medical Services (SEM) – on the blockade of El Prat airport (Barcelona), an action carried out by the tsunami of October 2019, in which a French tourist died after a heart attack.
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