A full clearance for the procés defendants

Spain's Tribunal de Cuentas, the public accounts watchdog, has cleared former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, former president Artur Mas, former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and 33 other former officials of the Generalitat. The case concerned public spending linked to the 1 October 2017 referendum and the independence movement's activities abroad. Counsellor Elena Hernáez signed the judgment, which was notified on Wednesday, 14 October 2026. The ruling applies the amnesty law approved more than two years earlier, lifts every precautionary measure imposed during the investigation and, according to ABC, puts a definitive end to the economic case. The defendants had faced a claim of roughly five million euros in bail, and the court is returning it: eldiario.es puts the amount at 4.1 million euros, while El Mundo reports 4.3 million.

Why the court waited

The court had resisted applying the amnesty for more than two years, and the delay centred on a question about EU money. Hernáez asked the Court of Justice of the European Union whether the spending could have harmed the financial interests of the Union. The Luxembourg court answered on 16 July 2026 that the amnesty could apply as long as EU funds were not affected. El Mundo reports that the Generalitat's comptroller told the court no EU funds had been used, and that this statement weighed heavily in the decision to archive the file. The prosecutor's office, which had earlier argued that the defendants bore accounting liability, later asked for the amnesty to be applied. eldiario.es adds that the court had tried to win EU backing for excluding the independence leaders from the amnesty, but received a firm endorsement of the law instead.

Timeline of the delay

The ruling came roughly three months after the EU court's answer. The evidence hearing was held in November 2023, but the case was not declared ready for judgment until the eve of the amnesty law's entry into force, according to El Periódico. After the EU ruling, Hernáez opened a first round of allegations in July, which eldiario.es says lasted ten days. A second round followed on 10 September before the court issued its decision. In both rounds, all the defences and the prosecutor asked for the amnesty to be applied, El Periódico reports.

Societat Civil Catalana's challenge

The popular prosecution group Societat Civil Catalana, which had brought the claim, asked the court to establish whether EU funds were used before deciding on the amnesty. It described establishing the source of the public money as essential to deciding whether to apply the law and close the file. The court rejected its request for reconsideration, saying the demand went well beyond the allegations stage, which allowed the parties only to state their positions and not to request evidence or a prior investigation, according to La Razón. The court also said the group had not been able to prove that EU funds were involved. In its resolution, the court stated:

The legal possibility of ordering final investigative measures does not mean that evidentiary actions which do not meet the legal requirements must be admitted under that heading.

Reactions and what remains open

Esquerra Republicana publicly celebrated the decision:

Esquerra Republicana welcomes the application of the Amnesty Law to the people charged by the Court of Accounts.

The party went on to demand that the ruling end the delays and open the way to the immediate and full application of the law to all pending cases. eldiario.es notes that, with this file closed, Puigdemont and Junqueras are still waiting for the amnesty to be applied in their other cases.