The application of the amnesty law will have to wait for what is called “the infantry of the ‘trial'”, the thirty high officials of the Catalan administration accused of their collaboration in the preparation of the 1-O referendum.
The delay, in this case, comes after the article 21 of the Barcelona Court annulled the resolution with which it had started in July the procedure to apply the amnesty to those involved. The Barcelona Court refers the case to the 13th Court, with the understanding that the same case must also include a dozen more people under investigation, in this case for the alleged expenses made by the Catalan administration abroad, in the case known as the external expenses. ‘procés’.
The unification of the case occurred at the request of the defense and the prosecution, who opposed the distinction, because although the Foreign Affairs file had been investigated in court 18, it had been ordered to be grouped in court 13. The court It therefore maintains that the application of the amnesty must be applied without distinction. Among those represented by the defense, and who now see their claims satisfied, are senior officials of the previous government such as Aleix Villatoro, Amadeu Altafaj, Jaume Clotet, Albert Royo or Joaquim Nin.
In its resolution, the Barcelona Court emphasizes that “we have not ignored in any case the inconveniences that could arise, due to the procedural particularities that this case presents, due to the procedural vicissitudes already mentioned, and as a consequence of the difficulty that the processing of a macro file represents, affecting almost thirty defendants, and to which are added those of the intermediate phase of the ordinary procedure.”
Although he is not among the half-dozen defendants who have filed an appeal, in the case of the external expenses of the Generalitat for 1-O is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Generalitat, Raul Romeva, who alleged before the Court 18 that several auditors’ reports approved the elements he signed.
The case opened before Court 18 is based on a report from the Court of Auditors on the financing of Catalonia’s foreign policy between 2011 and 2017. The aforementioned report indicates that there were certain activities “unrelated to the intended purposes” that, presumably, took place. The objective is to publicize the sovereignty process and obtain international support.
Based on this report and the complaint of the public prosecutor, the judge agreed to investigate whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for example, granted a “direct subsidy” of 40,000 euros to the Federation of Catalan Organisations of International Reputation (Focir), as well as to others.
