Spain’s Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal by the Junta de Extremadura, the region’s government, against the amnesty law covering acts linked to Catalonia’s independence process. The decision completes the court’s examination of challenges to the law, according to Congresodiario.

For people in Catalonia following pending individual amnesty cases, the ruling leaves the law’s constitutional validity intact after the final regional-government challenge was dismissed. The law is Organic Law 1/2024 of 10 June, on amnesty for institutional, political and social normalisation in Catalonia.

Sixteen appeals and six constitutional questions reviewed

The court’s full bench has now considered 16 constitutional appeals and six constitutional questions concerning the law, Congresodiario reported.

The judgment was drafted by the court’s vice-president, Inmaculada Montalbán. It follows the court’s earlier rulings on challenges brought by other regional governments, including Galicia and Castilla y León.

According to Congresodiario, the majority held that Spain’s Constitution contains no express ban on amnesties and that Parliament may adopt the exceptional measure to reduce political and social tensions.

  • The court found that the law’s aim of normalising coexistence after the independence process was legitimate.
  • It rejected claims that the measure breached legal certainty, the separation of powers or the courts’ reserved judicial function.
  • It also found that the law was not a self-amnesty and that the right to effective judicial protection remained protected.

Four judges, Ricardo Enríquez Sancho, Enrique Arnaldo, Concepción Espejel and César Tolosa, issued dissenting opinions, maintaining their disagreement with the majority’s approach.

The Constitutional Court’s official notice on its Galicia ruling likewise records that it dismissed that government’s challenge to Organic Law 1/2024, with Montalbán as rapporteur.

Primary sources: TRIBUNAL CONSTITUCIONAL, boe.es, boe.es, boe.es. Reported by russpain.com, congresodiario.com, L. L., tribunalconstitucional.es, hj.tribunalconstitucional.es, Martí Odriozola i Marcé, Núria Orriols, politico.eu, Jaime Barrionuevo, Mark Hallam News and current affairs writer and editor with DW since 2006. @marks_hallam, euronews.com.