The Prosecutor’s Office asks Llarena to add aggravated public disorder to aggravated embezzlement and disobedience
MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The State Attorney General, Álvaro Garía Ortiz, endorsed the criteria of the prosecutors of the ‘procés’ to support the decision of the investigating magistrate, Pablo Llarena, to maintain the prosecution of the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for a crime of aggravated embezzlement, despite of the penal reform that introduces attenuated versions.
According to tax sources consulted by Europa Press, the head of the Public Ministry shares the criteria of prosecutors Javier Zaragoza, Consuelo Madrigal, Fidel Cadena and Jaime Moreno, who on Tuesday asked Llarena to correct his initial decision to, in addition to pursuing Puigdemont for aggravated embezzlement and disobedience, do so for aggravated public disorder.
Llarena was forced to reformulate the prosecution and the search and arrest warrants against Puigdemont and the other fugitives from 1-O to adjust to the penal reform that has eliminated the crime of sedition and modified that of embezzlement.
On the same day that the changes to the Penal Code (CP) came into force, last Thursday, Llarena agreed to replace sedition with disobedience, ruling out that the facts fit into the new crime of aggravated public disorder, as well as maintaining aggravated embezzlement, discarding the toned down versions.
The magistrate of the Supreme Court (TS) indicated that the penal reform posed a scenario close to the decriminalization of the facts, although the four prosecutors argue in their brief that “the repeal of the crime of sedition, which included a devaluation of the action and a much broader typical injustice, does not prevent the application of the crime of article 557.2 CP (aggravated public disorder) and that of disobedience”.
The prosecutors of the ‘procés’ only disagree with Llarena in the way of pursuing the events previously classified as sedition, considering that in addition to the crime of disobedience they fit into that of aggravated public disorder, “sharing the rest of the pronouncements of the order” , that is, prosecution for aggravated embezzlement.
In his resolution, the instructor explained that it was possible to maintain the old embezzlement — which contemplated the same penalties as the current aggravated type, of up to 12 years in prison and 20 years of disqualification — by interpreting that the “profit motive” that includes the new wording is comparable to using public money as “own”, something that he believes the leaders of the ‘procés’ did.
The aforementioned sources assure that García Ortiz did not raise any objection to the proposal of the prosecutors of the ‘procés’ because he agrees that there should be no “spaces for impunity”.
It is pending for the attorney general to issue a decree, as he already did with the so-called ‘law of only yes is yes’, to unify criteria on how the members of the Public Ministry should apply the new embezzlement in the reviews of cases that take place in search for the rule most favorable to the prisoner.
To this end, García Ortiz has maintained contacts with members of various prosecutors –including Anti-Corruption and the Supreme Court– and the result is expected to be known in the coming days, according to said sources.