It summons the Legal Profession and the Prosecutor’s Office to rule before resolving on the merits
MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Madrid has urgently paralyzed the rogatory commission issued by Andorra to summon former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to testify as a result of the complaint about ‘Operation Catalonia’ in which he appears as investigated.
In an order, signed this Monday and to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates have considered it pertinent to suspend the judicial assistance issued by the Principality that also contemplates the summonses of the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz and the former Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro.
The TSJ of Madrid has agreed to grant the very precautionary measure requested by the former members of the Government and has notified the State Attorney and the Prosecutor’s Office so that they can rule before 2:00 p.m. on Thursday. After this period, the precautionary measure will be resolved.
As explained by the magistrates, the reasons of “urgency” are justified to adopt this measure and it is granted “for the sole purpose of the Ministry of Justice not returning the letter rogatory to the Andorran authorities” until the court can examine in hearing the arguments of the Attorney and the Prosecutor’s Office on the merits of the requested measure.
The Madrid court has now ruled as a result of the challenge by Fernández Díaz’s defense against the decision of the Secretary of State for Justice –dictated on September 30– to reject the appeal against the act of the Directorate General for International Legal Cooperation to process the Andorran letter rogatory.
The Justice of Andorra investigates the three former Executive Officers for alleged crimes of coercion, threats, blackmail, extortion, coercion of constitutional bodies and creation of a false document for their alleged relationship with the attempts to know “through illegal means” secret banking information of the former presidents of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas, as well as the former vice president Oriol Junqueras.
Specifically, the facts denounced in the complaints are related to alleged extortion, coercion and blackmail since 2014 by agents of the National Police to those responsible for the Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) to obtain “through illegal means” bank information secret protected by Andorran legislation” of various rulers of Catalonia and their relatives, including Pujol, Mas and Junqueras.
Recently, the defense attorneys of Rajoy, Fernández Díaz and Montoro alleged that their rights had been violated because the Investigating Court 32 of Madrid, when processing the aforementioned request, did not carry out the “prior control of legality in accordance with the legislation national and conventional in matters of international cooperation”.
The Provincial Court of Madrid agreed with them in considering that said court should have upheld their appeals against the Andorran rogatory commission. He specified, however, that he could not admit his appeals because the judge had already acted and responded to the Principality, for which he finally endorsed the judicial assistance provided to the Andorran authorities.
