Spanish Court Defies EU Ruling, Refuses to Amnesty Catalan Separatist Spending

Spain’s top court in Catalonia has refused to drop its legal challenge to amnesty for embezzlement charges linked to the 2017 independence push, defying a clear ruling from the European Union’s highest court. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) said it still has “reservations” about applying the amnesty law to former ERC officials Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó. In a ruling issued this week, the court rejected a request from Jové’s defense to withdraw a preliminary question it had sent to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) in Luxembourg. That question remains pending. The TSJC argues the CJEU’s July ruling—which backed amnesty for Catalan leaders because the funds used for the separatist drive did not harm EU financial interests—did not fully answer its concerns. The Catalan court insists the EU decision only addressed accounting liability reviewed by Spain’s Court of Auditors, not the criminal offense of embezzlement under the Penal Code. “The ruling does not respond to all our reservations,” the judges wrote. The main sticking point is whether embezzlement can be amnestied when it is treated “as a form of corruption.” Spain’s Supreme Court has already refused to apply amnesty to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on those grounds. His case is pending before the Constitutional Court this autumn. The TSJC now joins the Supreme Court, the National Court, and the Court of Auditors as tribunals reluctant—or outright opposed—to applying the controversial amnesty law. Even the two courts fully bound by the CJEU’s ruling, the Court of Auditors and the National Court, have not yet applied the amnesty since July, despite requests from separatist leaders and activists accused of terrorism. The judges resistant to amnesty have not had the final word.