Constitutional Court rebukes Supreme Court over amnesty law interpretation

In a recent judgment, Spain's Constitutional Court declared that the Supreme Court's exclusion of the offence of public-fund misappropriation from the Amnesty Law breached the constitutional guarantee of effective judicial protection. The court argued that the Supreme Court's expansive interpretation contradicted the law's spirit, which aims to ease the social and institutional tensions stemming from the Catalan independence movement.

It highlighted that the Supreme Court's reasoning ignored the specific purpose of the misappropriation offence and its link to the separatist process. Acting on the Constitutional Court's guidance, Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena annulled the national detention order against former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. The ruling also noted that previous requests for amnesty by Puigdemont and Antoni Comín i Oliveres had been denied, despite the European Union's top court finding no financial impact from the illegal referendum.