The Constitutional Court rejects Josep Rull’s appeal for protection against the judgement of 1 October

The Court considers that the fundamental rights of the former minister have not been violated by the sentence issued by the Supreme Court on the events of 1 October. Specifically, the Court argues that the sentence is justified by the fact that ‘he actively participated in laying the foundations that created the conditions necessary for a citizen mobilisation aimed at holding a judicially prohibited referendum.’ As in the case of Jordi Turull, the decision was not unanimous. Two of the court’s nine magistrates, Juan Antonio Xiol Ríos and María Luisa Balaguer, issues a separate vote because they consider that the penalty for sedition and disqualification is ‘disproportionate.’ On 2 June, the same court dismisses the appeals for protection of Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, and Xiol and Balaguer once again issue a private vote against the decision. In June, Cuixart, Turull and Rull appealed the decision to the European Court of Human Rights. Sànchez does the same the following September.