The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has decided to remove the president of the court, Jesús María Barrientos, from the trial of the former president of the Parliament, Roger Torrent, considering that his appearance of impartiality is “compromised”. The hearing, scheduled for July 12, has been suspended.
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This has been decided by the body in a resolution without dissenting votes when estimating the challenge presented by the former Junts deputy, Josep Costa. In turn, he has rejected a similar request regarding two other members of the court.
According to the TSJC, the performance of Barrientos in an institutional act in February 2018 could generate “reasonable doubts” for the accused and also “about the necessary perception by society of who judges as a third party alien to the interests of the parties in conflict. ”. During that act, the president of the TSJC left the room together with the chief prosecutor of Barcelona and the superior prosecutor of Catalonia while Torrent gave a speech in which he assured that there were “political prisoners” and that the courts prevented “materializing” the “will of citizenship” during the pro-independence process.
The Chamber affirms that it has no doubts about the impartiality of the president of the TSJC. “But that we do not doubt does not mean that there are no serious and well-founded reasons for the recusant fundamentally, and also part of society, to have them,” he emphasizes in the car.
In this way, the president of the TSJC will not direct or participate in the trial of Torrent and three other former members of the Catalan chamber table: the aforementioned Josep Costa, Eusebi Campdepadrós (Junts) and Adriana Delgado (ERC). The four are summoned for July 12 to testify for alleged disobedience for having allowed the processing and voting of a series of motions linked to the procés against the sentences issued by the Constitutional Court. One of them dealt with self-determination and the other disapproved of the monarchy, contrary to what was ordered by the High Court.
The Prosecutor’s Office requests 20 months of disqualification for Torrent and his two independentista companions in the Table. Adriana Delgado, who participated in only one of the processes of the resolutions vetoed by the Constitutional Court, the Prosecutor’s Office asks for a year and four months of disqualification and a fine of 24,000 euros.
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