The Public Prosecutors' Office has this morning presented two lawsuits for the crimes of rebellion, sedition and misappropriation of public funds against the president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, the members of the Catalan government and the Board of the Parliament. The crime of rebellion alone already carries a penalty of 30 years in prison.
They request a security of 6,207,450 euros for the "assurance of the financial responsibilities that those charged might incur". This includes the "demand for money and, if necessary, the embargo of property to the quantity which is prudentially set at 6,207,450 euros based on the contained previsions".
Not requested so far, however, is prison. They will wait for them to appear in court to testify. If they do not appear when summoned to court, the order is to then arrest them.
The Public Prosecutor also asks that the case currently open in the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia against the government, led by judge Mercedes Armas, should be moved to the National Audience court to combine with the other to form one.
In a press conference to announce the charges, Spain's Attorney General, José Manuel Maza, explained that the lawsuits indict all those who have made "decisions and actions through these last two years and who have caused an institutional crisis that culminated on 27th October with the declaration of independence". Two years meaning back to the last elections to the Catalan Parliament.
Maza described the path undertaken by the Catalan government to declare independence as "contempt for the institution".
The Attorney General ended his appearance with a statement of intent: "The Public Prosecutors' Office will continue to exercise its functions from a position of impartiality to guarantee respect for the rule of law and the institutional order seriously affected by the behaviour that motivates the lawsuits".
The suspects
The lawsuits take into account all the actions taken by the Catalan government and Parliament over the last two years.
The Public Prosecutors' Office brings charges to the National Audience court against the whole executive of the Catalan government, removed from office by the Spanish government: Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó, President; Oriol Junqueras i Vies, head of the Departments of the Vice-presidency and of Economy and the Treasury; Jordi Turul [sic] i Negre, Presidency Minister; Raül Romeva i Rueda, International Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency Minister; Antoni Comín i Oliveres, Health Minister; Josep Rull i Andreu, Territory and Sustainability Minister; Dolors Bassa i Coll, Work, Social Affairs and Families Minister; Meritxell Borràs i Solé, Governance, Public Administrations and Housing Minister; Clara Ponsatí i Obiols, Education Minister; Joaquim Forn i Chiariello, Interior Minister; Lluís Puig i Gordi, Culture Minister; Carles Mundó i Blanch, Justice Minister; Santiago Vila i Vicente, Business and Skills Minister, and Meritxell Serret i Aleu, Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing and Food Minister.
The other lawsuit, presented to the Supreme Court, includes Carme Forcadell i Lluís, speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia and all but two members of the Parliament's Board, namely Lluís Maria Corominas i Díez, first deputy speaker from 22nd October 2015 to 25th July 2017; Lluís Guinó i Subirós, first deputy speaker since 25th July 2017; Anna Simó i Castelló, first secretary and Ramona Barrufet i Santacana, fourth secretary, as well as against Joan Josep Nuet i Pujals, third secretary.
Causing a revolt in the streets
The Public Prosecutor justifies the charge of rebellion saying that whilst the Parliament was working apparently legally, they were organising a revolt in the streets: "Whilst the Parliament's work was directed to passing the legislation with which to foment and give an appearance of legality to the different stages of the process of disconnection, their action via the popular movements, favoured by them, were aimed at creating in the public a feeling of rejection towards the Spanish institutions and the powers of the [Spanish] state which would justify disobedience by society towards the orders coming from them and which would allow, when necessary, their mobilisation to give support to the attainment of the independence movement's objectives."
Despite the lack of violence in the streets and the lack of any uprising, they support the accusation of rebellion with the motivation of the large-scale protests. In fact, the Public Prosecutor takes into account all such gatherings that have happened over the last two years.
The document doesn't forget the intervention by pro-independence organisations ANC (Catalan National Assembly) and Òmnium Cultural who are already subject to their own lawsuits and whose presidents are in prison without bail near Madrid, but this time focuses on the covert work carried out by the government: "In parallel, and as tools at the service of the Catalan government's secessionist plan, the accused promoted events, demonstrations and proclamations promoting in the society the existence of a right to self-determination for Catalonia which any action by the Catalan government or Parliament on the edges of the law or against the [Spanish] Constitution was legitimised by, creating in the society a belief in the legitimacy of the actions against the power constituted to defend this non-existent and unconstitutional right to self-determination".
The Public Prosecutor notes that some members of the government are also members of ANC and/or Òmnium and gave instructions for the demonstrations: "It must be taken into account that a large number of the ministers of the government and pro-independence deputies (...) are members of these pro-independence entities, as such the initiatives by ANC, Òmnium and AMI [Association of Municipalities for Independence] and the actions by the government and Parliament were designed by all the members of the government and those here charged such that they all fed into one another".
Among the ministers belonging to the entities are Clara Ponsatí, Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull, Dolors Bassa and Anna Simó.
They argue that the Catalan government had "the need to count with the active support of the citizenry through mobilisations, gatherings and demonstrations which by their number would represent a sufficiently intimidating force, gradually imposed itself on all areas of the independence movement, from pro-independence political parties to the Catalan institutions and their representatives".
The lawsuit against the members of the government was presented, as expected, to the National Audience, because the president and ministers have lost their parliamentary privilege after being removed from office by the Spanish government on Saturday. The charges affecting the speaker of the Parliament and members of the Board were presented to the Supreme Court.
The charges demand the urgent summoning of the accused, although they don't suggest cautionary measures beforehand, like immediate arrest. The Public Prosecutors leave that until after they declare.
The two courts now have to admit the filings into consideration.
Without an army, with police
The lawsuit explains the Catalan government's need for the "complicity" of the Mossos (Catalan police) given their lack of army, citing conclusions of the Advisory Council for the National Transition which included "broadening the functions of the Mossos d'Esquadra, taking on those functions of external security and/or defence, which would involve the partial militarisation of some units and resources of the Mossos".
They argue that "this way, the Catalan government got around the need to count on the support of the security forces to carry out the independence process, in particular as regards the police of the autonomous community".
They conclude that "the declaration of independence and the exclusive assumption of command over the Mossos d'Esquadra implicitly means the potential use of this armed force against those who try to realise the validity of the Spanish Constitution in Catalonia".
Violent situations
The prosecutors see violence in the peaceful resistance in front of polling stations on 1st October listing 39 incidents from all of Catalonia's four provinces. All these examples coincide with attacks by the Spanish police at the doors of centres in the face of public resistance.
The text mentions the events and describes slogans shouted like "We're people of peace, we want to vote", "we're peaceful", "the people united will never be conquered", "forces of occupation out" and "we will vote". It also justifies the police attacks: "the police had to use the force essential to be able to reach the door, to form a cordon and be able to seize the electoral material and one police officer ended up injured".
They also numbered those in front of the centres and described the attitude of the protesters: "The police agents had to move aside the 150 people who, with great resistance and aggression, prevented them from entering".