The Constitutional Court has decided to reject the appeal of the former Catalan president, Quim Torra, against his sentence of a year and a half of disqualification for disobedience. The magistrates dismiss Torra’s allegations against his conviction for refusing to remove yellow ties from the facade of the Generalitat de Catalunya building in the middle of the electoral campaign in March 2019, once the Central Electoral Board had ordered it. The sentence has not been unanimous: the magistrates Juan Antonio Xiol and the recently incorporated Juan Ramón Sáez have announced private votes.
Torra stands up to partners and opposition and goes to the Supreme Court without having set the electoral date
Know more
The sentence, which will be known in the next few days, ensures that Torra “was not sentenced for his ideas, opinions or statements, but for non-compliance with certain requirements derived from the inappropriate use of public buildings, which must be at the service of general interests, not of a more or less concrete or numerous group of people, to the exclusion of the rest”. The display of the yellow ribbons, a symbol of Catalan independence, “infringed the duty of neutrality and objectivity that, at all times, must be respected by the public powers, but especially during the electoral period, as a guarantee of the cleanliness of the democratic process, and equality in elections”.
The plenary session of the Constitutional Court assures in a statement released this Wednesday that Torra’s conduct, who initially refused to remove the yellow ties, “could not be protected by the exercise of subjective rights, because in his capacity as President of the Government of Catalonia, and head of the management of public buildings, their conduct was determined by the provisions of the legal system.
The Supreme Court ratified in September 2020 the sentence of disobedience that had previously been imposed by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia. The judges accused Torra of disobeying the Electoral Board in a “stubborn and obstinate” manner and maintaining the independence symbology in public buildings in the midst of the electoral campaign. A sentence that triggered a political earthquake in Catalonia: the judges executed the sentence almost immediately and Pere Aragonès was proclaimed his substitute.
www.eldiario.es