MADRID, 11 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Court of Auditors has refused to suspend, due to the processing of the amnesty law proposal, the procedure that continues against the fled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and 34 other former officials of Catalonia for their alleged accounting responsibility in the alleged diversion of funds for the referendum illegal 1-O and the Government’s foreign action within the framework of the ‘procés’.
The counselor of the 2nd Department of the Prosecution Section, Elena Hernáez, has spoken this way after the trial ended on November 17 with the question of whether or not she would consider the request of former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras and the rest of the defendants. ERC to suspend the procedure due to the bill presented by the PSOE in Congress.
The Republicans argued that it was “highly probable” that the entry into force of the rule would take place in the coming months and pointed out that this Friday’s trial could “bring unnecessary procedural burdens.”
According to a brief information note sent by the Court of Auditors, the counselor bases the refusal to suspend the procedure on the fact that, as of today, the terms of the law pending approval by the Cortes Generales are unknown.
It should be remembered that during the hearing on November 17, the Prosecutor’s Office and Catalan Civil Society showed their opposition to suspending the procedure. The representative of the Public Ministry assured that he had to oppose it because the suspension could not be “subordinated to a future event.”
The counselor has agreed with the Prosecutor’s Office and has seen it pertinent to dismiss the ERC argument and continue with the procedure.
In this case, the Public Ministry claims 3.1 million euros jointly and severally from the 35 defendants after lowering the initial estimates of the Court of Accounts itself, which had foreseen an accounting liability of about 9.5 million euros. Catalan Civil Society, for its part, demands 5 million euros from 11 former Government officials included on the Public Ministry’s list. The defendants have already provided bail for the trial to avoid seizures.
Among the 35 names, in addition to Puigdemont, is that of the former Catalan president Artur Mas, who was already sentenced by the Court of Accounts itself to return to the Generalitat just over 4.9 million euros (to which was added more of one million euros in interest) for the organization of the independence referendum on November 9, 2014.
The list also includes former councilors convicted by the Supreme Court, such as Raül Romeva and Jordi Turull; escaped former councilors, such as Toni Comín and Lluís Puig; former delegates of the Generalitat abroad, such as those from the United States, France, Italy and Portugal; and delegates abroad who still remain in office, such as Marie Katinka (Germany) and Eric Hauck (Southeast European countries).
Likewise, nine people who were prosecuted by the Investigative Court Number 13 of Barcelona in the case opened for the preparations for the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017 are indicted. These include the former Secretary General of the Presidency of the Government Joaquim Nim; the former secretary of dissemination of the Presidency Antoni Molons; the former Secretary General of Labor Josep Ginesta; and the former director of Diplocat Albert Royo.
