Statistics reveal the impact of the amnesty law
Just one day before the session in the Congress of Deputies that approves the long-awaited amnesty law, the first statistics of its application are already being released. One of the first calculations is that of the Alerta Solidaria organization, an active organization that brings together defenses of a good part of the independence and left-wing activism, which has carried out intense work in the fight against repression.
According to Alerta statistics, which it has collected in a document, there are 419 activists and protesters likely to benefit from the law of criminal pardon for the independence movement. According to the entity, which emphasizes that they only refer to and calculate the cases they know of, “they are just over a third of the 1,168 people retaliated against.” That is to say, the rest, 749 people, which are two thirds of the total, would not need the Amnesty Law. For all of them, their luck has been to have an organized civil society, which has made up, as always, for the shortcomings of the slow and unfair institutional path,” argues Alerta in his study.
A detailed view of the data
The data collected by Alerta Solidaria focuses on criminal cases that affect activists and protesters. Therefore, politicians, members of the administration and those who have been repressed for working under the direction of regional or municipal governments are excluded from the count. However, an exception has been made to include the case of the 10 people investigated by the National Court in relation to the Democratic Tsunami, since they have no relationship with the action of any administration. Also included are those prosecuted in the case of Operation Judas, criminalization of the CDRs, also known as the 23S case.
In detail, Alerta’s count is based on 1,168 protesters and activists. Of these people, who have been the subject of all types of proceedings in criminal courts, 597 have had their case archived, which represents 51% of the cases. Those that have continued without a file are 571 (49%). Of these 571 people, 143 are under investigation (25%), 127 are awaiting a trial date or holding (22%) and 12 are awaiting sentencing (2%). As for the sentenced cases, there are 152 (27%) and with an acquittal on all charges, with a total or partial conviction, 137 (24%). From this comes the figure of 419 people likely to benefit from the amnesty.
Monitoring of the application of the Amnesty Law
Alerta Solidaria has formed a technical team to monitor the application of the Amnesty Law to carry out a sincere political reading. According to the platform, the promoters of the law “insist on masking the harshest reality: with this law we have not advanced towards independence, nor have the State’s weapons for political repression been deactivated.”
