Catalan president Quim Torra has called for the recusal for lack of impartiality of the president of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, Jesús María Barrientos, in the case against him for not removing yellow ribbons from public buildings during the election campaigns earlier this year. The president's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, argues he should be recused having made public statements against yellow ribbons in the past.
Boye calls on precedent from the European Court of Human Rights to argue that legal impartiality should be protected in appearance as well as in practice. He submitted a number of examples of Barrientos' attitude, like his defence of the initial order from the Electoral Commission to remove the ribbons or a statement he made that public spaces need to be preserved from political connotations.
This comes after Torra this weekend, in an interview with El Punt Avui TV, suggested that he may not show up in court on 25th September, if the hearing is upheld. That's because it clashes with the previously scheduled general policy debate in the Catalan Parliament.