Supreme Court ‘goes easy’
Judge allows PDeCAT and ERC heads to walk free, with Republican Marta Rovira forced to pay €60,000 bail for belonging to “strategic committee”
Marta Rovira and Marta Pascal yesterday walked free after testifying in the Supreme Court. Yet, the judge imposed bail of €60,000 on ERC party number two Rovira, while PDeCAT party head Pascal avoided any injunctions.
During her appearance, Rovira admitted attending top level meetings, although she said her role had not been executive, and she even related how at midday on October 1, after seeing the violence by Spanish police, she proposed halting the independence referendum to president Carles Puigdemont.
Yesterday’s court appearances by the PDeCAT and ERC party leaders were based on Guardia Civil reports alleging the existence of a “strategic committee” to plan Catalonia’s independence. The reports place Rovira among the main players, while Pascal’s relationship was more tangential, according to the investigators.
Despite expectations that Rovira might follow her party president, Oriol Junqueras, into prison, the court held back on ordering preemptive detentions, with a number of declarations from leading figures in the independence movement still to come.
In their testimonies, both Rovira and Pascal stressed the lack of violence in the bid for independence and they played down the legal significance of the independence declaration in the Catalan parliament on October 27. According to Rovira, the intention was to force an election. While the judge rejected a call for Rovira’s arrest, he did accept the prosecutor’s call for bail, with the argument that there was a reoffending risk. In her appearance, Rovira defended the “right” of Catalans to decide their future, arguing no clash with the Spanish Constitution or international law. She also denounced the persecution of independence leaders as “anti-democratic”.