The Supreme Court has annulled Meritxell Serret’s criminal conviction. She was the former Agriculture Minister in the Catalan government that organized the 2017 independence referendum. Announced in Madrid, the decision is the first time a member of the 1-O executive has been cleared under Spain’s new amnesty law, recently endorsed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Serret, who is affiliated with ERC, had been sentenced to one year of disqualification from public office and fined €12,000 for serious disobedience. The charges stemmed from her role in facilitating the 1-O referendum while serving in Carles Puigdemont’s cabinet, despite repeated Constitutional Court warnings. The Supreme Court’s criminal chamber ruled that the amnesty covers all the acts for which Serret was prosecuted, extinguishing her criminal liability.
The ruling came less than two weeks after the CJEU gave strong backing to Spain’s amnesty law, a development welcomed by ERC leaders. In its July 2026 ruling, the European court was reported to have held that the EU counter-terrorism structure does not preclude a national amnesty when the conduct does not amount to grave, intentional violations of human rights. It also recognized the law’s stated aim of reducing institutional and political tensions while facilitating reconciliation. ERC highlighted how quickly the Supreme Court responded to the EU decision. Serret had previously appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing that the new legislation covered her actions.
The April 2023 verdict from the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) said Serret knew of five Constitutional Court orders prohibiting the referendum, each delivered to her personally. The court found that she deliberately ignored the orders and took no steps to halt the vote. During her trial, Serret declined to answer questions from the prosecution. Instead, she said she had not intervened to stop the referendum, citing her personal convictions about Catalonia’s right to self-determination.
After spending three years in Brussels following the unilateral declaration of independence, Serret returned to Spain in 2021 to face the Supreme Court. She came back after other former ministers with similar roles, including Carles Mundó and Meritxell Borràs, as well as Santi Vila, were convicted only of disobedience, not embezzlement, and avoided prison sentences. The amnesty law has cleared the way for Serret’s legal record to be wiped clean, a move that could set a precedent for other officials involved in the 1-O process.
Spanish courts have also applied the amnesty in a separate case involving twelve people prosecuted in Operation Judas over alleged plans for sabotage and violent actions linked to Catalan independence. In October 2026, the Audiencia Nacional ordered the case definitively shelved, extinguishing the defendants’ criminal liability without a trial after finding that the investigated conduct fell outside the law’s exclusions. The case involved allegations distinct from those in Serret’s disobedience conviction.
The decision comes amid wider legal challenges and appeals by Catalan leaders seeking to benefit from the amnesty. In a recent case, Oriol Junqueras and other former officials contested a Tribunal de Cuentas decision, arguing that Spanish courts had failed to apply the EU’s amnesty ruling. Details of the dispute are available in this report: Catalan leaders’ ongoing legal battle over amnesty implementation.
Parliament passed the amnesty law in 2024. Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party negotiated it with Catalan separatist parties in connection with his investiture, with the stated aim of addressing the political fallout from the independence push. Its application to Serret may affect pending cases involving other Catalan politicians and officials, along with future relations between Madrid and Barcelona. The case also shows how Spanish courts are applying a national amnesty under European law in politically sensitive disputes over regional autonomy and constitutional order.
