Spain's government pardons former Catalan parliament speaker Laura Borràs, commutes corruption prison sentence to two years

The Borràs pardon

The Spanish Council of Ministers has granted a partial pardon to Laura Borràs, former president of the Catalan parliament and erstwhile leader of Junts per Catalunya. The measure, adopted during the last cabinet meeting before the summer break, commutes her prison sentence of four years, six months and one day to two years. The fine and a four-year-and-one-day disqualification remain unchanged, according to the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes.

La pena de prisión resultaba desproporcionada y excesiva.

The government justified its decision by citing the sentencing court itself, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, which had described the original prison term as disproportionate and excessive.

A corruption conviction upheld on appeal

Borràs was convicted of administrative prevarication and document falsification. The charges stemmed from her time as head of the Institut de les Lletres Catalanes, where she awarded contracts arbitrarily to a friend and split them to avoid oversight. In February 2025, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence of four and a half years in prison and imposed a 13-year disqualification along with a 36,000-euro fine, according to RTVE. The court also rejected her request to apply the amnesty law, ruling that the offences were corruption crimes unrelated to the Catalan independence process. After the pardon, only the reduced four-year-and-one-day disqualification remains, though the discrepancy in the reported length of the original bar from public office has not been clarified.

Four other pardons approved

The same cabinet meeting also approved four additional partial pardons. Artist and cultural manager Natalio Grueso, sentenced to eight years in prison, eight years of disqualification and a fine, had his remaining custodial sentence commuted on humanitarian grounds linked to his health, following a campaign supported by numerous figures from the arts and audiovisual sectors. Former Linares mayor Juan Fernández Gutiérrez saw his three-year prison term reduced to two, while his seven-year disqualification stays; his petition had the backing of the sentencing court, both the People's Party and Socialist groups in Linares, the city council and a neighbourhood association that gathered a significant number of signatures. Two private citizens convicted of crimes against public health had their sentences of three years and four and a half years, respectively, commuted to two years each, with favourable reports from both the sentencing courts and the public prosecutor.