The judge Federico Trillo, former president of the Congress and former Minister of Defense, considers the path of the preliminary judgment before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to be “optimistic” because, in his opinion, with amnesty law “the Rule of Law in Spain” and, therefore, the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) can be applied.
Trillo acknowledged that the bill registered by the PSOE in Congress is “formally and technically more polished” and “varnished” than the one presented in 2021 by the ERC and Junts groups, although “materially” the same objective. : “forgiving” and “forgetting the crime.”
The former minister explained that “it is very important that from the first moment” questions of unconstitutionality are raised by “judges who should apply for amnesty”, including the Supreme Court. With this step, the effectiveness of the amnesty, in principle, will be postponed for a longer time.
But in the same proposal registered by the PSOE in Congress, an attempt was made to address this possibility, by expressly stating that the question of unconstitutionality does not suspend the effects of the law. Something that the judges questioned a lot.
Due to this limitation, Trillo believes that the European preliminary ruling question before the European Court is “very optimistic” and considers that there is a reason for it because “the rule of law has been violated in Spain and the application of the Treaty of the European Union has a full place there.” “. In this case, the acceptance for processing of a preliminary judgment has a suspensive effect and the proposal of amnesty does not include the limits of this suspension.
Regarding the possibility of continuing the terrorism process in 2019 ordered by Judge Manuel García Castellón in the case of Tsusami, Trillo considers that there is room to act as long as “the processes requested by García-Castellón are carried out before the amnesty law enforceable. “. “That’s why,” he said.
Regarding the concept of “lawfare”, he believes that it is included in the text, although it is not clearly used in the said term. “Of course, there is the lawfare through the commissions that talk about the management of the application of this law and those actions that were previously prosecuted or may be prosecuted during the period included in the set dates,” he said.
Regarding Bildu’s support for the investiture, Trillo considered that this party “did not give free votes”, but ruled out the possibility that the law would also grant amnesty to ETA prisoners. With the current words, he said, it does not fit because they have already been sentenced, just as the charge of García Castellón fits if it ends before the law is implemented.”
