Tweets by Josep Costa on the Forcadell law suit

A set of thirteen devastating tweets by Josep Costa @josepcosta. The string starts here.

1. A few notes on why the trial of the Catalan Parliament's speaker is so outrageous from the point of view of constitutional and criminal law.
2. The Spanish Constitutional Court has repeatedly stated that parliamentary immunity serves the purpose of unrestricted political deliberation
3. Both the institution and the individual members are said to be protected from any action that might impede the free expression of their will
4. In particular, no member of any parliament shall be prosecuted, under any circumstance, for any of their opinions or votes. No exceptions.
5. According to the Criminal Code it is an offence to try to prevent a member of parliament from freely expressing an opinion or casting a vote
6. It is also a specific criminal offence for a judge to unduly prosecute, and for a police officer to unduly arrest, a member of parliament.
7. There is no legal basis for the Constitutional Court or any other court to order a parliament not to discuss a specific matter o proposal.
8. Until recently, the Constitutional Court maintained that political declarations or resolutions were not subject to constitutional review.
9. Their views have changed dramatically in response to the events in Catalonia. So much that parliamentary immunity now has become meaningless.
10. The Parlament's speaker is not prosecuted because of anything she did or said. She's prosecuted because they wanted her to block a debate.
11. Even though the Constitutional Court's previous view was that the speaker could not block the discussion of proposals by reason of its content.
12. It is also undisputed that the debate on Catalan independence was held in strict compliance of all Parliament regulations.
13. Bottom line: the speaker of Parliament's actions can never be a criminal offence. Her prosecution might be, as it violates parlimentary immunity.