After several unsuccessful attempts to get the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) would clarify if the co-spokesperson for Podemos Isa Serra She has fulfilled the special disqualification for the right to passive suffrage for 19 months to which she was sentenced along with a prison sentence for the same time for the crimes of attacking authority, minor injuries and damages in a protest against an eviction, this Tuesday received a clear answer: she is no longer disqualified from running for election.
The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJM recognizes that “an error has been made in relation to the accessory penalty of special disqualification for the right to stand for passive suffrage, in the sense that its suspension for a period of three years is agreed.”
In September 2022, the TSJM decided to suspend the sentence for three years of the former deputy and former spokesperson for Podemos in the Madrid Assembly because the sentence was less than two years and it was her first sentence. Now, contrary to what a procedure of March 29 indicated, the court reports that “said statement does not conform to the law, given that the suspension agreed by Order dated September 23, 2022 was limited solely and exclusively to the custodial sentence and not to the additional penalty of special disqualification for the right to passive suffrage”.
The TSJ clarifies that “the aforementioned accessory penalty begins to be served from the final date of the sentence in which it is imposed, and that it reaches said condition by virtue of the sentence handed down by the 2nd Chamber of the supreme court“, that is, on July 5, 2021.
After the sentence became final in the Supreme Court, the TSJM agreed to suspend the execution of the sentence for three years in exchange for Serra not committing a crime again during that period of time. But the accessory penalty of disqualification for the right to passive suffrage, which implies not being able to stand in an election, began to count since the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence.
In other words, since this past February Isa Serra, current co-spokesperson for Podemos and adviser to the Ministry of Equality, has complied with said disqualification.
Podemos sources indicate to Public that “it is good news that, after an unfair conviction, without evidence and derived from a police setup after demonstrating against an eviction, the TSJM has agreed with Isa Serra after so many writings and an appeal and confirms that his disqualification ended in the month of February. The TSJM has tried to extend in time a penalty of disqualification on some very relevant dates in an electoral key”.
The TSJ does not respond
This clarification from the TSJ of Madrid comes after several failed attempts by the defense of politics to be informed of its procedural situation. On May 4, 2021, Serra did not collect her deputy certificate in Madrid after the elections. Her defense presented a brief on September 27, 2022 requesting the TSJM to rule on the date of her disqualification. The Court refused to clarify the same, answering that in any case it would be appropriate to do so in the liquidation of the sentence, which is the procedure in which the court allows determining the start date of compliance and its termination date of the different sentences that were imposed.
On November 30, 2022, Serra’s defense presented a second attempt requesting that the liquidation of his sentence be executed to find out the date of the disqualification, but received no response. On March 3, a third document was presented to the court.
In said request, Serra’s attorney requested a response to her previous request, given that she only received confirmation that it had been received on December 2, 2022. In the letter, she once again requested that the sentence be liquidated and it be confirmed whether it is considered extinct. If so, she demanded a document proving that Serra is enabled again and the return of the “excess civil liability paid by the prisoner.”
In addition to these attempts, Serra’s defense presented at least two other briefs prior to the suspension of the sentence, in September 2022, precisely asking that said suspension be communicated.
