The Government of Pedro Sánchez had no doubts until recently that the amnesty is “clearly unconstitutional.” This was expressly stated in the reports with which the Executive pardoned those sentenced to prison terms in the trial of the process.
He did so in the common part of the nine reports that justify the granting of the pardon measures, in which it can be read: “Unlike the amnesty, clearly unconstitutional, which is demanded by some pro-independence sectors, the pardon does not make the the crime”.
The phrase is signed by the then Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, whose pardon proposals were approved by the Executive in the Minister council from June 22, 2021.
The extensive reports on each convict – around 30 pages – included references to the characteristics of the figures of pardon (authorized by the Constitution), general pardon (expressly prohibited) and amnesty (not expressly mentioned). And he pointed out the differences between them, highlighting that the pardon, compared to the amnesty, did not go so far as to seek the elimination of the crime itself.
In the report of the former vice president of the Government, for example, it reads: “It must be emphasized that Mr. Oriol Junqueras i Vies has already served three years and seven months of his prison sentence. An effect of the sentence that is not even It cannot nor is it intended to be erased. The granting of pardon will bring with it the consequence typical of any particular pardon, that is, that of excluding compliance with the pardoned or commuted sentence, but with the persistence of the crime. Persistence that in case of repetition of crime “would entail the assessment of the criminal record. Unlike the amnesty, clearly unconstitutional, that is demanded by some pro-independence sectors, the pardon does not make the crime disappear.”