The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has decreed that Catalan president Quim Torra will be put on trial for disobedience, for not having withdrawn the yellow ribbons and the symbols in favour of the political prisoners from the Catalan government palace and other official buildings, as required by the Central Electoral Commission (JEC).
In a decision made public this Friday, the magistrate Carlos Ramos decreed the opening of a trial against Torra for a crime of disobedience or a collateral of non-provision of assistance. The public prosecution is demanding a ban on holding public office sentence for 1 year and 8 months for the alleged offence, while the private prosecution, ultra right party Vox, asks for a two year ban for the Catalan president. The opening of an oral trial is taking place after the TSJC dismissed the petition for the appeal presented by Torra.
After receiving the petitions of the prosecutions, the judge decrees the opening of oral hearing without taking any precautionary measures, since no party requested it. In his account of the events, Ramos uses the adverb "presumably" a dozen times after Torra's defence had tried to challenge him, considering that his previous written ruling had prejudged the president as guilty.
Presumption of innocence
In fact, before beginning the statement of the facts, the judge emphasises that it is not a statement of guilt, and that Torra keeps "his right to the presumption of innocence untouched." "Which is not a hindrance to being able to affirm that he, presumably, carried out the following facts," he adds.
Then he enumerates the various orders of the Electoral Board and the actions of the president. He emphasises that yellow ribbons are symbols "considered as belonging to some political parties", and therefore they are "partisan", and cannot be displayed by administrations during the electoral period "without seriously infringing their duty of objectivity and neutrality."
The magistrate explains in his letter that the president of the Catalan Government submitted several writings of reconsideration to the JEC instead of complying with the order, involving the Ombudsman and getting to replace the yellow ribbon by another white banner with a red strip. The magistrate includes the adverb "presumably" throughout the text.
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