Carme Forcadell, indicted

A court of law has agreed to consider the Prosecutor’s accusations against the Catalan parliament’s Speaker of the House, who has been charged with contempt and neglect of duty

Montse Riart
2 min
Carme Forcadell: “No crec que l’Estat ens inhabiliti: 
 Aquesta cambra farà les coses ben fetes”

BarcelonaCatalonia’s Hight Court (TSJC, in Catalan) has agreed to consider the charges pressed against Carme Forcadell, the Speaker of the House, for having allowed a parliamentary vote on the conclusions of the committee that studied Catalonia’s constituent process.

Forcadell has been indicted for contempt and neglect of duty, as requested by the prosecution. After being served the writ, Forcadell responded with a post on Twitter.

Former Catalan president Artur Mas showed Forcadell his “support” by means of a message on Facebook: “The more legal action and lawsuits they file to thwart our efforts, the more we need people to rally in the street. We must stand up to them”, he stated.

Forcadell was “fully aware” of the Constitutional Court’s warning

One of the arguments which the TSJC has given to press criminal charges against Forcadell is that the Speaker of the House was “fully aware” of the Constitutional Court’s warning not to allow a vote on the conclusions of the constituent process committee.

The prosecution’s statement argues that Forcadell knew of the Court’s injunction because “she warned” the political groups, and the statement goes through all the messages that Forcadell received from MPs who disagreed with her decision. According to the TSJC, “some MPs objected to the vote”. One lawmaker “asked the chamber’s Bureau to rule on the matter” and two of its officers noted that altering the order of business meant “contravening the law”. The judges remark that, nevertheless, Forcadell went ahead with the vote.

The Public Prosecution filed a lawsuit against Forcadell last week and requested that she be indicted and summoned to court to give a statement. They believe that Forcadell knowingly chose to ignore the warning of the Constitution Court when she allowed the vote in parliament. The prosecutor accuses Forcadell of trying “to overturn” and “blow up” the Spanish Constitution whilst displaying “utter contempt” for it. The charges brought against her are: repeated neglect of duty and grand disobedience.

The TSJC has chosen not to weigh the prosecution’s arguments just yet, as it believes that at this point in the case “our judgement must focus merely on the likelihood of the criminal charges being pressed” without “any need to offer further evidence or explanations”. The court has not set a date yet for Forcadell to give her statement. She has been given three days to appeal the court’s decision.

The former president of the TSJC, tasked with Forcadell’s prosecution

The court’s decision was taken and drafted on Monday, after more than three hours of discussion, but the interested parties were not formally notified until Tuesday. The leading judge, Maria Eugènia Alegret, argued for the need to indict Forcadell and agree to consider the Prosecution’s complaint. The two other judges involved were Carlos Ramos and Jesús Maria Barrientos, the president of the TSJC. Judge Alegret will continue to run the case from now on.

Maria Eugènia Alegret is a member of Spain’s conservative-leaning Professional Association of Judges and she led the case against former CDC MP Xavier Crespo, who had been bribed by a Russian businessman while he was Mayor of Lloret de Mar. The court found Crespo guilty and sentenced him to 9 years without being eligible for office. The former president of the TSJC also had to decide whether to allow the many complaints lodged against Artur Mas following the non-binding vote on November 9.

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