He Supreme Court of Belgium has dismissed the appeal Presented by the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the former Conssellers Toni Comín, Clara Ponsatí, Lluis Puig and Meritxel Serret to try to reverse a prior sentence of the Belgian justice favorable to Judge Pablo Llarena.
With this, the Valida Casación Court of 2020 by which a Belgian civil court dismissed the initial lawsuit of former Catalan leaders against the magistrate of the Spanish Supreme for the alleged violation of his presumption of innocence by considering that he was incompetent to pronounce himself in this regard.
In the sentence issued on March 13, to which EFE had access, the Belgian Supreme 2020 judgment was based on Llarena had immunity from jurisdiction in Belgium and points out that the appeal against it is inadmissible. This is because, when not being attributed to the contested sentence to give an interpretation of the conclusions of the plaintiffs, the appeal cannot lead to cassation.
It also refuses to raise the Court of Justice of the EU a preliminary ruling on whether Llarena enjoys immunity from jurisdiction in Belgium, as requested by independence politicians.
For all this, Disregard the resource and condemns Puigdemont And the former councilors to Pay the process costs.
The initial demand was presented seven years ago
The case dates back to 2018, when they filed before a Belgian civil court against Llarena that considered that the judge who instructed the cause of 1-O had violated the presumption of innocence When saying in a talk in Oviedo in February of that same year as the prosecuted ones in the case of “procés” were not political prisoners.
Demand, that Lawyers expanded to include the kingdom of Spainhe also asked the Belgian Court to ask the EU Court of Justice if Llarena enjoyed the immunity of jurisdiction in Belgium, that is, if the Spanish magistrate could not be tried in that country.
In 2020, the Court of First Instance dismissed the appeal for considering that it could not rule On the bottom of the matter, since “the manifestations of Llarena occurred in their status as a judge and that, therefore, are protected by the immunity of jurisdiction.” And also rejected ask the TJUE about it.
With the verdict dictated on Wednesday, the Belgian Supreme support this position and closes the door to Belgium can condemn the Spanish magistrate.
