Spain’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Court, announced on Thursday the opening of an investigation for “terrorism” against Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont, in connection with unrest in 2019 following the sentencing to prison of separatist leaders .
The Supreme Court said it was “competent” to “open an investigation
This announcement comes as the Spanish left-wing government of Pedro Sánchez and the party of Carles Puigdemont are negotiating an amnesty law for separatists involved in the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017, one of the most serious political crises of the contemporary history of Spain. In a press release, the Supreme Court said it was “competent” to “open an investigation and, if necessary, prosecute the former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont” for “terrorism offenses in relation to the facts targeted by the investigation into ‘Democratic Tsunami'”.
“Democratic tsunami” is the name of a mysterious platform which called for protest against the sentencing on October 14, 2019 of nine independence leaders to prison for their role in the 2017 secession attempt. Thousands of activists had notably formed the blockade from Barcelona airport that day. This organization had also been at the origin, among other things, of road cuts in Catalonia in a context of high tensions marked by scenes of urban guerrilla warfare in Barcelona.
The Supreme Court, which appointed an investigating judge to investigate this case, “has no doubt about the fact that the facts of which ‘Democratic Tsunami’ is accused amount to terrorism”, continues the body in its press release. According to her, “there are several indications supporting the participation in the facts of Carles Puigdemont”, who “was informed from the start of the creation of this new group organized with a view to subverting the constitutional order and seriously destabilizing democratic institutions “.
In addition to Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in 2017 to escape prosecution by the Spanish justice system, this investigation also targets Rubén Wagensberg, an elected official in the Catalan regional parliament who left Spain a few weeks ago to avoid prosecution.