El Tribunal Constitucional avala amnistiar la malversación y allana el regreso de Puigdemont

The Constitutional Court (TC) has approved the application of the Amnisty Law to former Catalan adviser Dolors Bassa for the crime of malversation, paving the way for the return of former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont. The Supreme Court may soon put this doctrine into practice without waiting for rulings from the remaining leaders of the independence movement.

The majority of progressives on the Constitutional Court voted in a full plenary session on the petition presented by the court president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, regarding Bassa, after conservative magistrate Josué María Macías decided not to present a new petition for the ex-councillor and general secretary of Junts Jordi Turull, though he initially agreed but later rejected it as it contradicted Pumpido's decision.

The judgment heavily criticizes the Supreme Court's refusal to apply the amnisty for the malversation crime, stating that it goes against the spirit of the law and that it made a clearly expansive interpretation of the norm. Consequently, the majority has accepted Bassa's appeal in a ruling that, according to TC sources, has five individual votes from conservative magistrates Ricardo Enríquez, Enrique Arnaldo, Concepción Espejel, César Tolosa, and Macías.

Pumpido had previously announced that they would set a clear and definitive doctrine, which they would immediately convey to the Supreme Court for execution. The Constitutional Court's rulings are binding. From now on, the Supreme Court will have the final say on when to enforce this doctrine, guiding other amparo appeals by those convicted of the independence movement and serving as guidance for Puigdemont, former Vice President Oriol Junqueras, and former councillors Raül Romeva, Antoni Comín, and Lluís Puig, who fled with the former president. The Supreme Court does not expect to wait for the TC's resolution regarding them.