Former Catalan minister in exile Lluís Puig Gordi (Junts) has the status of MP, although according to the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) his vote cannot be counted in parliamentary votes. This is the opinion, published on Wednesday, of the Spanish Supreme Court TC) which has declared that, given his current status as Catalan MP, the Catalan High Court of Justice (TSJC) is the competent court to judge him for disobedience in the Sixena Monastery assets' case, according to a decision published by the court on Wednesday. Last October, the head of Huesca's First Criminal Court suspended the trial against Santi Vila and Lluís Puig, both former Catalan ministers of Culture, in relation to the Sixena Monastery's assets and sent a "reasoned statement" to the Spanish Supreme Court requesting it to decide which court is competent to judge the case. The Prosecutor's Office argued that the Spanish Supreme Court has jurisdiction.
Puig's defence counsel, led by lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, requested the suspension of the hearing, stating that Puig has been a Junts MP since March 2021, is in exile in Belgium, and therefore his case must be judged by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). The Huesca Court judge decided to suspend the hearing when the Catalan Parliament sent him a report confirming that Lluís Puig had been granted parliamentary immunity in the Catalan Chamber. However, recently, the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) annulled Puig's delegated vote and informed the Prosecutor's Office and the Chamber that evidence of breaches might be inferred, hence, a new criminal procedure could be initiated against the Catalan Parliament's Bureau for disobeying the Spanish Constitutional Court.
The facts, in Catalonia
The cSupreme Court's Criminal Chamber's decision, dated December 20 and published on Wednesday, states that aside from Lluís Puig's current status as Catalan MP, the the alleged disobedience of which he is acused would have taken place in Catalonia, and this is, therefore, a second reason to refer the case to the Catalan High Court. Specifically, former Catalan ministers Vila and Puig are accused of disobeying the judicial authority for not giving the order to transfer certain works of art from the National Art Museum of Catalonia to the Sixena Monastery. Following a court order, they were taken away by the Civil Guard in a way that caused dismay among art professionals.
The judge in Huesca considers that the Spanish Supreme Court has jurisdiction, given that a Catalan MP is accused of a crime committed "outside Catalonia" because the crime of disobedience "is to be considered committed in the place from where the disregarded judicial order came from", that is, the court in Huesca. For its part, the Prosecutor's Office agrees that it is the Spanish Supreme Court which must judge former minister Puig because "the crime was not committed in Catalonia", but clarifies that the crime was not committed where the injunction was issued (Huesca) but in the town where the 44 artworks that were the object of the injunction had to go, in other words, in Villanueva de Sijena.
Santi Vila's case
The Spanish Supreme Court rejects the two arguments and recalls that according to its case-law the crime of disobedience must be understood as having been committed "in the place where the subject failed to act as instructed by the order he disregarded", that is, in Catalonia and when Puig was a member of the Catalan government. The court states that "the defendant, according to the prosecution, in order to comply with the order received, had to issue the necessary instructions for this transfer to take place. And he failed to abide by the court's order". For all these reasons, the Spanish Supreme Court concludes that "as it concerns an MP from an autonomous community and the acts were committed in Catalonia", the Catalan High Court has jurisdiction.
The Spanish Supreme Court also indicates that the Catalan High Court will have to decide whether, for "related reasons", it is appropriate for it also to hear the case against former Catalan minister Santi Vila, given that the same crimes are attributed to him, or whether to return it to the Huesca court. In the case of former minister Vila, in addition to the crime of disobedience, he is accused of usurpation of judicial powers.