Editorial, 26 March 2023
Judge Pablo Llarena at a public event
He has given the treatment of regional minister Meritxell Serret as an example of rigour in judicial proceedings for the consequences of the organisation of the 1-O referendum.
The Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena denies that there has been any kind of animosity or persecution against the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and other pro-independence politicians who fled the country after the 1-O referendum. He justified his argument by giving as an example the treatment received by the minister Meritxell Serret when she appeared voluntarily before the high court and was immediately released.
He has defended it in the order confirming the prosecution of Puigdemont for a crime of disobedience and another of embezzlement in its most serious form, which can be punished with up to 12 years in prison: “No impartial observer could malign a lack of impartiality for the claim of the fugitives, when Meritxell Serret, one of the defendants who shared their situation of rebellion, appeared voluntarily before this instructor, agreeing immediately her freedom, being subject to what the trial Chamber of the Supreme Court decides.”
The regional Minister of Foreign Affairs, who will be tried on 29 March for her responsibility in the 1-O referendum, was released after appearing before the instructor of the ‘procés’ in the high court. It did the same with the former CUP MP Anna Gabriel, who awaits the trial she will have to face in Barcelona.
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