Jaume Alonso Cuevillas, Catalan lawyer who represents Carles Puigdemont, believes that the sentences of the 12 defendants in the independence trial have already been decided. Numerically, he says, the sentences will be around half as long as what the public prosecutor had demanded.
"They will not be found guilty of rebellion, but of conspiracy to rebellion. Sentences of between 8 and 12 years in prison," said Cuevillas in an interview with the Diari de Girona.
Entrevista al @DiarideGirona
— Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas i Sayrol (JACS) (@Cuevillas_JACS) 24 de març de 2019
Tant de bo m’equivoqués ...
«La sentència ja està decidida, serà d´entre 8 i 12 anys de presó» https://t.co/hidDXUOorV
He also predicted that an appeal would be lodged at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg but that before this was resolved, "which will be in 6 or 8 years, we will be a republic."
As well, the lawyer questioned the impartiality of Spanish justice. "The judges are human and therefore imperfect, with their 'philias and phobias' and they make mistakes", admits the lawyer. However, he added, in this case, it "goes much further, because it is politicized, with judges that are not impartial."
Candidature in Girona
Cuevillas was also asked about his forthcoming entry into politics: he is standing as a candidate for the JxCat political party in the Spanish general election, at the head of the list for the Girona constituency. "I had never considered going into politics," said the lawyer. "In fact, when they asked me to be a candidate, I first replied that I hadn't lost anything in Madrid," he explains in the interview. He says it was Catalan singer-songwriter Lluís Llach who convinced him, "on a road trip to Bilbao that we did."