Defending Democracy in front of Inquisition: Parliament to file a complaint against judge for violating MP Jordi Sànchez's rights

The Catalan Parliament will file a complaint for malfeasance against judge Pablo Llarena and the criminal chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court. The announcement was made on Thursday evening by speaker Roger Torrent and confirmed by the Parliament's Bureau in an extraordinary meeting this Friday morning. The decision has come after the judge again refused to let Jordi Sànchez attend Parliament to participate in a debate on his investiture as president, despite interim measures decreed by the UN Human Rights Committee.

The measure was passed with votes in favour from JxCat (Together for Catalonia, list of support to President Carles Puigdemont) and ERC (Catalan Republican Left, pro independence left) and votes against from C'anos (Spanish nationalist Far Right) and PSOE (Spanish nationalist left) . During the meeting, the chamber's lawyers expressed agreement over the background to the question, about the existence of a violation of the JxCat deputy's political rights, but also expressed mistrust as to whether the Parliament can adopt such a measure. Despite the lawyers having noted they are not experts in criminal law, they have been entrusted with drafting the complaint against judge Llarena and the judges of the criminal chamber who could have intervened.