Spanish court drops terrorism case against 12 CDR members under amnesty law

A case closed under the amnesty law

Spain's Audiencia Nacional, the national criminal court, has dismissed the case against twelve members of the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR) who had been prosecuted for terrorism. The order, reported on Friday, 23 October 2026, declares the proceedings closed outright on grounds of the extinction of criminal liability. The twelve had not yet been tried when the court applied the amnesty law to them.

The group was accused of belonging to a tactical response team (ERT), described as a cell built around a radicalised core of people from different CDRs. The defendants also faced charges of membership of a terrorist organisation, possession of explosives and a further offence of damage. They had been detained in the police operation known as Operation Judas. The alleged plan was to carry out violent actions against buildings in Catalonia in response to the 2019 sentence in the procés case.

Why the court waited for Luxembourg

The case had been suspended since September 2024. When the amnesty law was approved in June 2024, the Audiencia Nacional sent the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) a preliminary question on whether amnesty for terrorism defendants was compatible with EU law. The court had openly doubted that it was, arguing that amnesty could seriously breach EU rules.

In July, the CJEU upheld the amnesty law. It found that the law does not affect European interests or conflict with the EU terrorism directive, and that it aims to ease institutional and political tensions rather than amount to self-amnesty. The terrorism exclusion covers offences that caused serious human rights violations or physical damage, and the CDR case involved neither, because the group never carried out any action. The ruling came about three months before the order.

In late September the court asked the parties to state their views on the ruling's scope, giving them ten days to respond. The prosecution had argued that the defendants should already benefit from the amnesty, and both the prosecution and the defence then asked for dismissal on amnesty grounds.

Reaction from Catalan politics

Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president and leader of Junts, welcomed the order on X. He wrote:

Great news, which comes very late and after unjust suffering.

He also described the case as malicious and pointed to the name of the operation, Operation Judas. He accused the case of a media lynching and a flagrant violation of fundamental rights. The decision was first announced on X by the organisation Alerta Solidaria before the order was confirmed. The case is one of the most sensitive for Catalan independence supporters.

Key dates in the case

The sources give a handful of dates running from the 2019 sentence to Friday's order. Several stages carry only a month rather than a day.