The Constitutional Court rejects Josep Costa’s claims
It has been a long debate, however, the hard sector has finally prevailed in the Constitutional Court in the face of the claims of the former vice-president of the Parliament and independentist freelance leader, Josep Costa. In a 12-page interlocutory order handed down on January 23, to which El Món had access, and communicated this Thursday, the plenary session of the TC dismissed the objections presented by Costa against several magistrates. Togas that, one way or another, Costa understood that they were intoxicated by the judicial process suffered by the members of the Parliament table chaired by Roger Torrent who were tried and acquitted for disobedience.
The procedure and Costa’s objections
The procedure originates from the arrest of Costa during the investigation process of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) for the case of disobedience. Precisely, a case followed at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office following the complaint of the TC itself. Costa challenged the President of the Court, Cándido Conde Pumpido – who has withdrawn from the Trial cases -, Ricardo Enríquez and Juan Carlos Campo. The latter as former Minister of Justice of the Spanish government who urged to act before the decisions of the Bureau of the Parliament and partner of Meritxell Batet, former president of the Congress.
The resolution of the Constitutional Court
Curiously, the speaker of the resolution was Concepción Espejel, from the ultra-conservative sector, which raised the suspicion of a tough internal battle between the right and the left of the high judiciary. In fact, the roughness of the relationship between the president of the TC, Conde-Pumpido and Espejel, is public and notorious. But Costa and his independence has united them in plenary, and without any particular vote, they have rejected the interposed appeal for the rejection of the recusals.
The case of Costa’s arrest and the recusals
The case that has spurred the recusal goes back to October 27, 2021, when Costa was arrested by the Mossos d’Esquadra by order of the instructor of the case for disobedience, Maria Eugènia Alegret. After the arrest, Costa filed an appeal for protection before the Constitutional Court and in December it was accepted for processing, in the understanding of the admissions room that it had sufficient constitutional significance in the sense that there was no doctrine on an arrest of these characteristics. Once the judge speaker was heard, Costa filed a recusal incident against magistrates Cándido Conde Pumpido, Ricardo Enríquez and Juan Carlos Campo. The former vice-president of Parliament alleged that the magistrates were tainted because all three had reported him to the prosecutor’s office to open the process for which he was arrested. The prosecutor’s office also objected to the challenges.
