Spanish judges say Catalan amnesty could help PM Sanchez but imperil rule of law

By Belén Carreño and Joan Faus

MADRID, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Spanish judges have waded into a row over a possible amnesty for Catalonian separatists in return for their support for a new Socialist-led government, arguing that it serves the interests of acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez but not the country.

The amnesty law has been proposed by Sanchez, who is trying to form a government after a July election produced no outright winner, in exchange for the backing of two Catalan separatist parties.

The conservative-stacked General Council of the Judiciary, the body that picks top judges, said on Monday night that pardoning Catalan politicians, officials and activists prosecuted over the region's failed 2017 separatist bid would overturn decisions taken by the courts and imperil the rule of law.

The council "expresses with this statement its intense concern and desolation at the degradation, if not abolition, of the rule of law in Spain...," it said.

"From the moment (an amnesty deal) is adopted, it will become a mere formal proclamation that will inevitably have to produce consequences to the detriment of the real interest of Spain."

The judges' intervention came amid late-stage negotiations in Brussels between Socialist leaders and the self-exiled leader of the hardline separatist Junts party, Carles Puigdemont, who himself faces charges over the independence bid and could be the most high-profile beneficiary of an amnesty.

The Socialists have just under three weeks to reach agreement and seek parliamentary support for a new Sanchez government to continue in office before fresh elections are triggered.

Negotiations with Junts were stalled due to the latter's unrealistic demands on who should be covered by the amnesty, said a source with knowledge of the talks without elaborating.

Meanwhile, protests by thousands of people in several Spanish cities against the amnesty in recent weeks are turning violent.

On Monday night, 4,000 people including the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, rallied outside the PSOE headquarters in Madrid.

Protesters hurled bins and bottles and shoved makeshift barriers set up by police who, unusually in Spain, responded with tear gas. Further protests are expected on Tuesday.

In another judicial move that could complicate the talks, a High Court judge in Madrid on Monday announced he would investigate Puigdemont and close colleagues and possible terrorism charges which, if they led to a conviction, could put them outside the remit of any amnesty.

The case relates to mass protests across Catalonia, one at Barcelona Airport, in 2019 after a court handed long prison sentences to separatist leaders who organised an illegal independence referendum.

The judge said in a statement the events could justify terrorism charges.

Cuca Gamarra, a spokesman for the conservative People's Party, said the judicial moves were "part of the normal functioning of democracy".

Separatist parties have raised fears that judges will also seek to water down the application of any amnesty law agreed by the Socialists and the separatists.

A constitutional law lecturer at Spanish UNED university, Lucrecio Rebollo, said even if such a law were passed, judges could interpret it differently to its authors. (Reporting by Belén Carreño and Joan Faus, editing by Aislinn Laing and Nick Macfie)