A Madrid court sentences Antonio Baños to four months in prison and the Supreme Court fines Eulàlia Reguant for refusing to answer VOX’s questions

The Criminal Court no. 30 of Madrid sentences Antonio Baños to four months in prison on the charge of disobedience for having refused to answer questions from VOX during the Supreme Court trial against the leaders of the 1 October referendum. The ruling argues that Baños appeared to be mocking the Court and describes the situation as a ‘reprehensible jest’. The court also sentences Baños to four months of disqualification from public office. In an interview with Catalunya Ràdio, Baños says that he will ask for the trial to be invalidated and repeated because he was not allowed to speak in Catalan at the hearing. Eulàlia Reguant of the CUP, who was tried by the Supreme Court rather than a lower-level court due to her status as a member of Catalan Parliament, is sentenced to a 13,500-euro fine. The Supreme Court claims, among other arguments, that Reguant overstepped the bounds of ideological freedom and freedom of conscience, and that her actions were not a lawful exercise of freedom of expression. In January 2024, after the Constitutional Court refuses her amparo appeal against the decision, considering that no right had been violated, Reguant lodges an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights. The CUP alleges before the ECHR that the sentence violates the right to freedom of expression and ideological freedom.