The decision by the judge of the Central Investigative chamber No 6 at Spain's National Audience court, Manuel García-Castellón, to maintain the accusations against Carles Puigdemont and Marta Rovira for alleged crimes related to terrorism arising from the events that took place in October 2019 at Barcelona airport, in the so-called Democratic Tsunami case, even distancing himself from the position of the public prosecutor, demonstrates perfectly that the intention of the Spanish judiciary is to carry out a de facto intervention in the political agreements which led to the proposed amnesty law to end Catalan independence process prosecutions, which is currently passing through its legislative stages. García-Castellón has sent the charges to the Supreme Court, having confirmed the evidence of terrorism he claims to have found and stated that he has more, in a judicial approach that shows a great deal of imagination as well as being technically indefensible. Even though the justification for his animosity appears, as it stands, to be far removed from any tangible element in the case.
García-Castellón's crusade also has a lot to do with that of a judge at the end of his career, since the final date of his retirement will be in October of this year, when he will be 72 years old and will exhaust the extension to continue practicing that he had requested. The fact that the judge's battle coincides with the debates over the amnesty is, naturally, not a matter of chance. Just as he has a reputation for not being very aggressive in the cases that affect the People's Party (PP), his zeal against the pro-independence parties is linked to the majority position of the judiciary, strongly opposed to the amnesty. The Tsunami case, in the end, is nothing else than that, no matter how much attention is given to it or how many indications are brought to light. There was no terrorism, the death of a man in the vicinity of El Prat airport was due to natural causes and neither Puigdemont nor Rovira would be on the list of those accused if it weren't for the need to keep alive the persecution of the Catalan independence movement.
Neither Puigdemont nor Rovira would be on the list of accused if it weren't for the need to keep alive the persecution of the Catalan independence movement
Hence, the importance that the amnesty law enters into the Tsunami and CDR cases, which the Socialists (PSOE) do not accept at the moment, arguing that terrorism cases cannot be covered by the umbrella of the amnesty law. It is a fallacious argument, as when there was talk of a coup d'état and rebellion offences at the beginning of the Catalan leaders' trial in the Supreme Court, and in the face of the shameful ridicule that it would have meant for Spanish justice, the charges were converted into sedition - an offence which, it should also be noted, no longer exists today in the Spanish Penal Code. To leave the Tsunami and CDR cases out of the amnesty is to fall into the trap that the Spanish judiciary has set in order to be able to continue tossing out its lasso to catch pro-independence people every time it feels like it.
García-Castellón's scolding of the public prosecutor, in which he regrets having to insist on the "strong indications of terrorism" in the Tsunami and CDR events, while reminding the prosecutor "that his mission is to promote the action of justice in defense of legality" is simply hilarious. And then the judiciary gets on its high horse and screams blue murder when anyone talks about lawfare. But the fact that the persecution is so blatant and lacks any solid evidential basis, makes it very difficult to deny that there is misuse in the pursuit of such cases in the Spanish justice system.