The pardon, a semi-unknown figure in Spain, has jumped to the front pages of all the media due to the growing suspicion that the Government of Pedro Sánchez will grant it to those convicted of secession and embezzlement in the framework of the independence attempt of Catalonia. The figures speak for themselves: since 2007 and over the years, pardons have become an increasingly rare measure.
According to data on pardons since 1996 collected by CIVIO, the first legislature of the José María Aznar government is the one in which the most pardons were granted, with an average of 900 per year. However, the year 2000 was when the maximum was reached, with 1,744 pardons, of which 122 were signed before the general elections on March 12 of that year, when the PP would achieve its first absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. .
Socialist minister Juan Fernando López Aguilar took just three weeks to sign his first pardons, while his successor Mariano Fernández Bermejo only took four days in office to grant his first pardons. Francisco Caamaño also took three weeks, and Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, who was sworn in just before Christmas, did so a month later. Rafael Catalá, also from the PP, headed the Ministry of Justice for almost two months until the BOE published his first pardon and his successor, the current Attorney General Dolores Delgado, waited almost four months. The current minister, Juan Carlos Campo, did so only a month after taking office.
The Minister of Justice with Aznar, Margarita Mariscal, has been the member of the national Executive that has granted the most pardons, with 3,515. She is followed by far by his successor Ángel Acebes, with 1,910, and the socialist López Aguilar with 1,279.
Regarding the types of crimes that are most likely to be pardoned with a pardon, those committed by officials who violate individual freedom stand out (3.7% of those pardoned out of the total number of sentences), followed by crimes related to natural resources and the environment (3.3%) and prevarication by officials (1.68%). For embezzlement, one of the crimes for which four promoters of the process (Junqueras, Romeva, Turull and Bassa) are convicted, 0.9% of the cases are forgiven.
Regarding the time elapsed from the conviction until the Executive pardon was achieved, the minimum wait has been one and a half years in a case against the Administration of Justice, and it extends to more than 3 years in crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity.
Other media pardons
Although the pardons usually go to people without media significance, pardons have been granted to some prisoners with social relevance and that have been controversial. This is the case of General Alfonso Armada, one of the perpetrators of the attempted coup on February 23, 1981. The government of Felipe González granted him a pardon five years after being sentenced to 30 years in prison due to worsening of his health condition.
On the other hand, two senior political officials from the González government were later pardoned by the Aznar Executive. The former Minister of the Interior and Secretary of State, José Barrionuevo and Rafael Vera respectively, were sentenced to ten years in prison for the irregular detention of citizen Segundo Marey for confusing him with an ETA leader – the first action claimed by the GAL – and for embezzlement. It was the Supreme Court that endorsed the pardon, in which two thirds of the sentences were forgiven. After the suspension of the sentence, they only spent three months in prison. The PSOE at that time attacked the pardon for being partial and not total. Barrionuevo himself has declared this week that he opposes the pardon of the leaders of the process because it is “elementary” that they respect “the rule of law.”
However, in other cases the Executive has ignored the report of the sentencing court. In 2011, Francisco Caamaño, then acting Minister of Justice under the leadership of Rodríguez Zapatero, granted a pardon to the CEO of Banco Santander Alfredo Sáenz, who had been sentenced to six months in prison for false accusation when he was president of Banesto in 1993. The sentence removed the condition of “honorability” required by the Bank of Spain to be able to continue practicing in the financial sector, but the pardon restored it, so he could continue in the position until 2013. By then, the Supreme Court he annulled the administrative effects of the pardon, and Sáenz ended up announcing his resignation.
At present, apart from those convicted of secessionism in Catalonia, the Ministry of Justice has begun to process the pardon requested by Juana Rivas, the media case of a mother who in 2017 disappeared for a month with her two children so as not to return them to the father, who had been convicted of mistreatment of her. The Justice has dismissed the suspension of the prison sentence of two and a half years ordered by the Supreme Court for child abduction.
Pardoning convictions for 14 centuries
The right of grace has been present in the Peninsula at least since the 7th century, with the Fuero Juzgo. In its adaptation to the Romance language of the 13th century, the pardon was collected under the name of “mercy”, although it could only be granted by the monarch in crimes against his person, the State or the land. The figure was expanded and defined for centuries, especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is how it comes to 1870, when the law “for the exercise of the pardon grace” is approved, which is still in force with some modifications in 1927, 1988 (the most substantial) and 2015.
The pardon can be total or partial, but the total can only be given “in the case of reasons of justice, equity or public utility, in the opinion of the sentencing court and the Council of State” (art. 11). The court in question, the Supreme Court, has already stated in a report that not only are these conditions not met, but also that the convicts have insisted on their willingness to repeat the crime, describing the pardon in this case as an “unacceptable solution”. .
For this reason, the pardon of the leaders of the procés may not be total, but partial by “commuting the sentence imposed to a less serious one within the same gradual scale.” The minimum penalty for embezzlement is two years, while for sedition it is ten years if they are authorities and eight if they are inducers.
In the latter case, however, the Government can again legislate the crime of sedition downward, reducing the penalties, which would automatically benefit the nine convicted of that sentence by applying the maximum of the Law of the retroactive application of the law penalty most favorable to the accused.
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