Spain's Supreme Court grants Clara Ponsatí amnesty and archives her procés case

The ruling

Spain's Supreme Court has applied the Amnesty Law to Clara Ponsatí, a former Catalan councillor, in a decision issued on Thursday, 5 November. The criminal chamber, in an order that El Periódico attributes to judge Manuel Marchena as rapporteur, declares her criminal liability extinguished and dismisses the case against her with a free discharge, known in Spanish as sobreseimiento libre. The charge was disobedience linked to the 1 October 2017 referendum in the procés case, and it was the only offence still pending against her after sedition was repealed in December 2022. Ponsatí was never tried because she left Spain before the trial. The court found that the acts behind the proceedings fall under the amnesty, so the matter is now closed for her.

Why the case took so long

Ponsatí asked the Supreme Court in June 2024 to apply the amnesty once the law had been passed. The chamber held off on any ruling until the Constitutional Court resolved its question of unconstitutionality, which it did in October 2025. The Supreme Court then took two years and five months after the law was enacted to formally apply it to her, according to El Periódico. Ponsatí had been living in freedom since returning to Spain in 2023, when a reform of the Penal Code removed sedition and left disobedience as her charge. After her arrest in Barcelona she appeared before judge Pablo Llarena and was released, but she remained formally charged until now.

Ponsatí's reaction

Ponsatí responded on X, where she rejected the idea that the ruling amounted to a victory. She wrote that her case had surfaced from a corner of the court's files and that the court seemed to have decided to archive it and grant her amnesty.

“I will not make a fool of myself by saying this is a victory, because it is not.”

Other amnesty cases and what remains

In the weeks before, the Supreme Court applied the amnesty to several members of the Govern who promoted the 2017 independence process, including former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and former councillors Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa. Those decisions followed the Constitutional Court's endorsement of the pardon for embezzlement and backing from the Court of Justice of the European Union for the measure. LaVanguardia places Ponsatí's amnesty three weeks after the Junqueras decision. For now, Pablo Llarena has lifted the arrest warrants against former president Carles Puigdemont and former councillors Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, whom he considers amnestiable after a Constitutional Court order. Those three also evaded Spanish justice after the referendum, and the chamber that tried the procés with Manuel Marchena as presiding judge now has their cases in hand.