Trial in absentia. The judge of Barcelona criminal court number six, Diana Marcelo, agreed to hold the trial against the 131st President of the Generalitat without him being present. Quim Torra made a video this morning announcing that he would not be appearing in court because he considered it "a political trial." The law allows trials in absentia if the sentence demanded is less than two years' prison, and in the case of Torra he is facing a ban on holding public office, from both the public prosecutor and the private prosecution, mounted by the Spanish nationalist group Impulso Ciudadano. Torra's lawyers, Gonzalo Boye and Isabel Elbal, did not oppose the judge's decision, and demanded Torra's acquittal, saying that he had won in "dignity."
In this second trial, the prosecutor has maintained the request for a 20 month ban on holding public office and a fine of 30,000 euros for the former president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, for failing to remove a banner in support of "imprisoned politicians" from the balcony of the Generalitat palace in September 2019. He is accused of disobedience, because the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) gave him 48 hours to remove the banner and the former president did not do so, arguing that the instruction was a breach of his freedom of expression. Finally, the court ordered the Mossos d'Esquadra police to take down the banner, but before they could, some Generalitat staff did so. In Torra's first case for disobedience, the order to remove the banner came from the Central Electoral Commission (JEC), as it was during the election campaign, in March 2019. The prosecutor stated that Torra has not been prosecuted for his ideas, but for “institutional disobedience”. Impulso's lawyer demanded that he be fined 109,000 euros.
In January this year, Torra completed his first sentence for disobedience, for an almost identical offence, failing to remove a banner from the façade of the Generalitat palace. It cost him the presidency of Catalonia, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and validated the 18 month ban on office holding, imposed by the TSJC. This time, Torra, since he is no longer afforded the partial protection of political office, has been tried in an ordinary criminal court.
Witnesses
The trial began with witnesses being heard. The first was the Mossos police officer who had taken the court order to remove the banner to the Generalitat palace, as ordered by the judge. The second witness was Pere Cardús, head of press for president Torra, who stated that he did not receive any request in person, but he had seen it. Defence lawyer Boye asked him if others banners had been hung on the balcony of the Generalitat before the one with the 'Free political prisoners' slogan. "There have always been other banners on the balcony of the Generalitat, related to human rights, women, peace, and now against the invasion of Ukraine," said Cardus. Also, when asked by the lawyer, he denied that the current president Pere Aragonès or the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, had been subject to any court accusations for banners in favour of human rights that have been hung on public buildings. The third to testify was a Mossos inspector, who had had the task of speaking to the caretaker of the building to remove the banner; no one had objected to this. Asked by Boye, the policeman admitted that he also performed the same duty over the request to remove the first banner in favour of the exiles - and those were the only times he performed such a job in more than twenty years in the Catalan police force.
Putin
In his conclusions, Boye read out the resolution of the parliamentary asssembly of the Council of Europe, published last June, which called for the release of the Catalan political prisoners, as well as the reform of the offences of rebellion and sedition. The prosecutor asserted that in fact a "minority" of the assembly had voted for this: "70 members out of the 324 voted in favour." He also said that "a lie if told a thousand times does not come true" referring to the statements of former president Torra. The prosecutor added that Torra had received the order as Catalan president, and this "did not have the property of fundamental rights", and that, on the other hand, the Spanish Constitution states that public buildings must be at the disposal of general rights, not those of a group”. "Torra's freedom of expression can be exercised in his individual sphere and has not been put on trial due to the content of the banner, but due to the incorrect use of a public building and failure to comply with a court order," the prosecutor concluded.
For his part, the lawyer Boye criticized the prosecutor for disregarding the Council of Europe rulings: "Vladimir Putin has left the Council of Europe! Where do you want to take us, to Poland and to Russia?" He added: "Putin does not like Council of Europe resolutions, in the same way as the prosecutor doesn't." In an ironic and critical tone, Boye said: "The prosecutions have only presented a political statement, not evidence. They have asked for Torra to be tried for recurrence in the offence when he had not even been convicted a first time. What do they want? The only thing missing is to burn him at the stake". He stated that the prosecutions had not shown to whom the order was addressed. And he also affirmed that "the extreme right does not ask for banners to taken down from the Madrid city hall".
Spanish nationalist prosecution
It was the Spanish-nationalist organization Impulso Ciudadano that initiated these second court proceedings, asking the TSJC to, as an interim measure, make Torra remove the banner, even though it was not during an election campaign. The court granted the interim request and on September 19th, 2019, it issued an order, personally communicated to Torra on September 23rd, giving him a maximum of 48 hours to remove the banner. However, on September 20th, Torra issued a statement stating that he would not abide by the order. Torra did not do so, claiming that the court's decision was not final and could be appealed. According to the former president, displaying the banner was an exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, political participation and the exercise of representative office. On September 25th, the Catalan government filed an appeal to reverse the interim ruling from the TSJC. The next day, the court noted that the appeal did not suspend the order. On September 27th, a justice ministry lawyer issued a report stating that the banner was still in place. The court then ordered the Mossos d'Esquadra to remove the banner. The order was carried out that day by government palace staff.