First 1-0 mayor to appear in court
Serracant summoned to declare next Monday morning after being accused by private individual in Murcia
The mayor of Sabadell, Maties Serracant, a member of the party Crida, is the first of more than 750 Catalan mayors that the public prosecutor intends to investigate for the crime of disobedience against the Constitutional Court (CC) for having facilitated the 1-0 referendum by allowing municipal premises to be used for the vote.
Other mayors have been accused of disobedience for preventing police action on 1-0, whereas in the case of Sabadell, Serracant was reported by a Murcia pensioner at the end of October 2017 for “allowing the use of municipal premises”. The man accused the mayor of disobedience, misuse of public funds, bribery, sedition and rebellion. After opening preliminary proceedings, the court ruled out all the crimes except for disobedience. Specifically, it found that the accusation “suffered from considerable inaccuracy with regard to the more serious facts”.
As part of the investigation for disobedience, the court quizzed the city council and Generalitat regarding who exactly was responsible for state schools and whether the town hall concretely had received the CC’s notification “prohibiting the referendum.”
Serracant stated yesterday that he had not yet decided whether to declare before the court next Monday, even though protests have already been organised. Municipal sources did clarify that all the information requested by the court “has been facilitated.”
Serracant also reaffirmed that “However many complaints are brought against the institutions and people who fight for democratic rights, they will not stop the will of the citizens... to express themselves and decide with the freedom in international law on the self-determination of peoples.”