The legal opinion presented by Sumar on the proposed amnesty for Catalan independence process prosecutions argues that members of the Spanish police and security bodies accused of related actions should be included in the law, but that it should exclude those police officers who were involved in actions that caused serious injuries, considered as crimes against moral integrity.
This evening, the Spanish left-wing political party Sumar presented the opinion drafted by experts on the detailing of its amnesty law proposal, in an event at the Ateneu de Barcelona, in which the party leader, Yolanda Díaz, was present, although she did not speak. The presentation was made by former MP Jaume Asens and the experts who participated in the text. Present in the audience, along with the senior leadership of the Comuns - major Catalan component of Sumar, with Ada Colau at its head - was former Catalan interior minister Joaquim Forn.
Limitations of international treaties
In relation to the Spanish police and security forces, the text contemplates the inclusion in the amnesty law of police actions aimed at preventing the holding of the referendum, as well as actions taken in defence of the 1st October (1-O) referendum of 2017, or in protest against judicial decisions relating to the independence process. However, it points out that the amnesty law has limitations established by international treaties, so police officers involved in actions likely to be considered crimes of torture or against moral integrity would be excluded from the law. In this regard, the proposal recalls that a thousand victims of varying severity of violence were recorded between October 1st and 4th, 2017, it highlights the actions that took place in 27 schools being used as polling places, and specifically the injuries caused to Roger Español - who lost an eye after he was impacted by a police-fired projectile, for which there are five officers accused - in addition to those suffered by 438 people injured in the protest actions subsequent to the referendum.
Sumar also pointed out the scope of the law in terms of the period of time it would cover, in view of the reservations expressed by the Socialists (PSOE) on this aspect. The opinion now foresees that the law should include the events that took place from January 1st, 2013, at the beginning of the process of claiming Catalonia's right to decide its future - taking in the 9-N unofficial consultation, of November 9th, 2014 - and continuing until August 17th, 2023, the date of the constitution of the Congress that will have to pass the law.
Although last week Sumar announced this event as the exposition of its amnesty proposal, when Jaume Asens took the floor he made it clear that the opinion does not intend to be the end point of anything but that Sumar wants to contribute to public debate. Asens spoke of the amnesty as a political opportunity to move forward. "The amnesty is not a simple bargaining chip in order to obtain an investiture. It is a necessary and coherent step to the reaching of an historic agreement, which allows us to look to the future", he affirmed, adding that it must serve as a navigation guide to overcome a period of confrontation, in which there have been beatings, imprisonment, unilateralism, a lot of misunderstanding, and a failure of dialogue.
He traced the conflict back to the Spanish Constitutional Court's decision to overturn the Catalan Statute of Autonomy approved by the public in 2006 and described the amnesty as "an opportunity to heal the wounds that have been created on both sides". In this regard, he called on the Catalanist movement to recover its great consensuses and keep the negotiations above confrontations between parties and above those who "have settled into the comfort of defeat and defend a narrative of all or nothing."