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The president of Spain's Supreme Court and head of the country's judicial administrative council, Carlos Lesmes, sent a farewell letter of recognition last Friday to judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer, who died this Sunday morning and who, in his role as judge of Barcelona's Court Number 13, had been investigating the preparations for last year's Catalan independence referendum. In a letter which El Nacional has had access to, Lesmes underlines the "heroic dimensions" of the judge's work in a "hostile" environment. Judicial sources consulted by this newspaper attribute the letter to an attempt to be "close to him in a human way" given the worsening of his illness.

In the letter, written in a very personal and friendly tone, Lesmes recalls how Ramirez Sunyer had decided to "change the course of his career" by leaving his profession as an engineer to become a judge, and he goes on: "by doing so, you changed the course of the very History of our country. And in this resides part of your greatness."

Lesmes says that changing his career and overcoming the tough entrance process in order "to serve Justice" reflected a "drive and a vigour that were quite unheard of." "You have given ample evidence of this drive and courage in many difficult circumstances," he says, to later add: "But this compliance with duty takes on heroic dimensions when everything around you becomes hostile."

 

Carta Lesmes

Carta Lesmes

“I think it is at this precise moment when man begins to be the measure of all things and also to show the measure of himself," he says. And in this regard Lesmes assures Ramirez Sunyer that he has become: "the measure of all of us, the judges." "A figure of reference for all of us," he continues.

"And so, I convey my deepest respect and admiration for your person; for the person who is able to pursue so tenaciously what he believes in, what constitutes his inspiration and his goal: the service to Justice and the State, to Spain, and the fulfillment of the duty which that service entails".

The letter concludes by thanking the judge for being as he is, and for defending the Rule of Law and Justice "without hesitancy or fear in such troubled times”.