Rejects Rajoy’s request to paralyze the judicial aid sent by the Principality
MADRID, 2 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has rejected the request of former President of the Government Mariano Rajoy to paralyze in a precautionary manner the rogatory commission that Andorra issued with the intention of questioning him as a result of the complaint filed in the Principality for the ‘Operation Catalonia ‘. Thus, it has reactivated the judicial assistance and the investigation that is being carried out against the former leader of the PP.
It should be remembered that the Justice of Andorra investigates Rajoy, the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz and the former Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro for alleged crimes of coercion, threats, blackmail, extortion, coercion of constitutional bodies and the creation of a false document for their alleged relationship with the attempts to learn “through illegal means” secret bank information of the former presidents of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas, as well as 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.
As stated in an order, signed on October 31 and collected by Europa Press, the magistrates –by rejecting Rajoy’s request– have agreed to lift the very precautionary measure that they had adopted last week to urgently suspend the rogatory commission of Andorra.
Thus, after this decision of the Madrid TSJ, the Principality will receive the documentation required from Spain and will have the green light to proceed against the former president.
The court has rejected Rajoy’s petition considering that “it is limited to adducing generic and inconsistent invocations”. In 13 pages, the magistrates have defended that, in their opinion, “it is evident that there are sufficient reasons not to comply with the request.”
In its order, the TSJ of Madrid has insisted that the fact of accepting Andorra’s rogatory commission “cannot be confused with a prosecution on the merits of the process.” And he also recalled that judicial aid serves to “guarantee a situation of equality” before the courts.
The court has thus coincided with the criteria of the Public Ministry, which on October 26 showed its opposition by believing that Rajoy’s argument that his fundamental rights had been violated with the processing of the rogatory commission what he “really” covered up was a trial on the actions of the Court of Instruction Number 32 of Madrid and the Provincial Court.
The Prosecutor’s Office also assured that the “questioning” that Rajoy made about the decision of the General Directorate of International Cooperation to proceed with the Andorran rogatory commission would be “an examination of ordinary legality not susceptible to evaluation” because, according to the Public Ministry, the violation to which the former president referred was not accredited.
The defense of the former leader of the PP alleged that he had seen his rights violated because the Madrid court, when processing the aforementioned request, did not carry out the “prior control of legality in accordance with national and conventional legislation on international cooperation.”
Although the Provincial Court of Madrid agreed with him in considering that said court should have upheld his appeals against Andorra’s rogatory commission, it stated that it could not admit his appeals because the judge had already acted and given a response to the Principality. Thus, he endorsed the judicial assistance provided to the Andorran authorities.
Faced with this scenario, Rajoy’s defense filed an appeal against the decision of the General Directorate for International Cooperation to give the green light to Andorra’s rogatory commission, but it was unsuccessful, because it was inadmissible by the Secretary of State for Justice, which It is what the former president has asked to review in the Madrid Supreme Court.
The magistrates, however, have rejected his request, for which reason they have reactivated judicial assistance to the Principality.
