Spain’s Supreme Court challenges constitutionality of amnesty for Catalan separatists

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday challenged the constitutionality of an amnesty law pushed through by the government earlier this year to help hundreds, potentially thousands, of Catalan separatists.

The Supreme Court cannot strike down the amnesty, but it has asked the nation’s Constitutional Court to weigh in.

Spain passed the amnesty law in March to help the separatists in legal trouble for their roles in a failed 2017 secession attempt by elected officials of the northeastern region.

The Supreme Court said it believes that the amnesty violates the principle of equality before the law guaranteed in Spain’s constitution. It said, for example, the amnesty pardons violent acts committed for the cause of Catalan independence, such as stone-throwing at protests, while the same acts committed for other ends, political or not, are punishable.

The court also argued that the amnesty violates the constitutional principle of legal certainty by creating an expectation that other political activists could break the law without punishment.

The Madrid-based court also took issue with preamble of the amnesty law that the amnesty would mend relations between separatists and non-separatists, pointing to the lack of remorse shown by the leaders of the separatist movement. It called the separatist bid a “coup d’état.”

Political opponents said Spain’s government only granted the amnesty to attract the support of separatist parties that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez required to form a new government after elections last year.

The amnesty, which must be applied by judges on a case by case basis, would mainly help civil servants and ordinary citizens, but it was also expected to aid former regional president Carles Puigdemont, a fugitive from Spanish law since fleeing to Belgium.

Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press