TEXT: Letter by Catalan Parliament Speaker Roger Torrent to Judge Llarena (EN) (March/April 2018)

From the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia, Roger Torrent, to the Supreme Court  investigating judge Pablo Llarena. 

Your Most Excellent Sir,

I am informing you that I have nominated Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol MP as a candidate to be invested as president of the Generalitat of Catalunya, and that I have convened the investiture debate for Friday, April 13, at 10 o'clock in the morning. I enclose a copy of the resolutions.

Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol is a member of the Parliament of Catalonia and is in custody, but precautionary measures cannot be used to limit the legitimate exercise of his political rights.

Preventive custody cannot entail the deprivation of the right to passive suffrage, which necessarily includes the right to be elected president of the Generalitat of Catalonia if a parliamentary majority so decides.

The Human Rights Committee of the United Nations has made a statement to that effect in its recent resolution of March 23, 2018, in which it grants the Deputy Jordi Sànchez the precautionary measures requested in his claim dated March 21, 2018. In that claim, Jordi Sànchez reports a violation of article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, having been denied the right to attend an investiture debate.

The granting of precautionary measures by the United Nations Human Rights Committee places an obligation on all the powers of the State to ensure results, and requires the necessary mechanisms to be put in place so that Jordi Sànchez MP can submit his candidacy in the investiture debate.

Should the Supreme Court, as the State power affected by the Human Rights Committee, not comply with this resolution, irreparable damage to the political rights of Jordi Sànchez MP would result, and the Spanish State would be breaching its international commitments which, in accordance with articles 10.2 and 96 of the Spanish Constitution, also have to be guaranteed by the judiciary.

I am sure that you will take the necessary measures so that Jordi Sànchez MP can submit his candidacy in the investiture debate convened for Friday, April 13, in the Parliament of Catalonia, and I would like to send you a warm greeting.

Yours faithfully,