Spain’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Court, announced on Thursday February 29 the opening of an investigation for “terrorism” against Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont, in connection with unrest in 2019 following his sentencing to prison in separatist leaders.
The announcement comes as Spain’s left-wing government of Pedro Sanchez and Mr. Puigdemont’s party negotiate an amnesty law for pro-independence activists involved in Catalonia’s 2017 secession attempt – one of the country’s most serious political crises. contemporary history of Spain.
In a press release, the Supreme Court said it was “competent” to “open an investigation and, if necessary, prosecute the former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont” for “terrorism offenses in relation to the facts covered by the investigation into Democratic Tsunami”.
Democratic tsunami is the name of a mysterious platform that called to protest against the sentencing on October 14, 2019 of nine independence leaders to prison for their role in the 2017 secession attempt. Thousands of activists had notably formed the blockade from Barcelona airport that day.
Urban guerrilla scenes
This organization had also been at the origin, among other things, of road cuts in Catalonia in a context of high tensions marked by scenes of urban guerrilla warfare in Barcelona. The Supreme Court, which appointed an investigating judge to investigate this case, “has no doubt about the fact that the facts of which Democratic Tsunami is accused amount to terrorism,” the body continues in its press release.
According to her, “there are several indications supporting the participation in the facts of Carles Puigdemont”, who “was informed from the beginning of the creation of this new group organized with a view to subverting the constitutional order and seriously destabilizing democratic institutions “.
In addition to Mr. Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in 2017 to escape prosecution by the Spanish justice system, this investigation also targets Ruben Wagensberg, an elected official in the Catalan regional parliament who left Spain a few weeks ago to avoid prosecution.