Published: Less than 30 min ago
Spain’s government is considering a law change that would lower the penalty for separatist leaders fighting for an independent Catalonia. But not everyone is positive about the changes.
Nine Catalan separatist leaders were sentenced to long sentences for sedition for leading the region’s independence bid in October 2017.
Now the social democrat Pedro Sánchez and his government are proposing that a 19th-century law that was then used to judge the leaders should be changed. It would mean that future prosecutions for similar offenses would fall under the Serious Offensive Conduct Act, with a maximum sentence of five years – a third of the fifteen years offenses under the Sedition Act can carry.
Not impressed
The move has been met with cautiously positive words from Catalonia’s regional leader Pere Aragonès and direct criticism from the right-wing PP party, which accuses the government of siding with the separatists in order to remain in power. The government is forced to rely on several small regional parties to get its proposals through, and not least next year’s budget.
Sánchez said on Spanish television on Thursday that the proposed changes would not mean that leaders on the run – among them separatist leader Carles Puigdemont – would escape prosecution, only that they would face less severe penalties.
And Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium since 2017, is not impressed by the bill. “The judges are not being repealed, they are just being renamed,” he said in a statement.
Will appease the EU
The proposal is also an attempt by the government to meet the EU and bring the Spanish laws on sedition in line with other countries in the Union. That very point has been a stumbling block when Spain has tried to have Puigdemont and other leaders in exile extradited.
The nine convicted of sedition have all been pardoned and released from prison after three years. However, they are prohibited from standing in elections.