The Congressional commission responsible for investigating the double jihadist attack of August 2017 in Barcelona and Cambrils (Tarragona) approved on Tuesday the list of 29 comparative parties which must make declarations. The Executive and its partners cite, among others, the former president of the government Mariano Rajoy, the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, the former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo or the former vice-president and head of the National Center of intelligence (CNI) Soraya Sáez. de Santamaría and the former director of the organization Félix Sanz Roldán.
The list was put forward with the support of the PSOE, Sumar and its usual parliamentary allies, with the exception of the PNV, which abstained. PP and Vox voted against. It was accepted by the socialists Sumar, Junts and ERC. The two Catalan independence groups thus succeed in ensuring that this body, reactivated a little over a year ago in exchange for the support of the escaped “ex-president” for Francina Armengol to preside over the Lower House, asserts its main objectives .
Last week, the Central Executive once again gave in to the neo-convergents and opened the door, seven years after the attacks which left 16 dead and more than 300 injured, to the declassification of documents linked to the CNI on terrorism jihadist of the 17-UN. Although the Mossos d’Esquadra investigation – even approved by the Supreme Court – determined that the mastermind of the cell that attacked that day was Abdelbaky Es Satty, secessionists have for years fueled conspiracy theories about the relationship between the famous as a magnet of Ripoll and the center.
Villarejo and the CNI
No date has yet been set for the auditions to begin, but the intention of the groups proposing the list is for them to begin in late October. The first to be questioned will be Sanz Roldán. He will be followed by José Luis Olivera Serrano, former director of the Intelligence Center against Organized Crime (Citco) and former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. The commissioners will have the opportunity to question him on the comments he made on the double attack, which even suggested in 2022 the idea that the 17-A attacks were a “calculation error” on the part of the CNI for wanting to be “a little scary”. .” » in Catalonia.
Villarejo credited the organization with creating a “fictitious command” so that Catalan authorities believed there was a real risk and were forced to seek protection from the state. The former commissioner also assured that the plan “went out of control” with the death of the imam in an explosion before 17-A.
Several names from the government of Mariano Rajoy also appear on the approved list, such as the vice-president and head of the CNI at the time, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, or his interior ministers Juan Ignacio Zoido and the one who was his secretary of ‘State. José Antonio Nieto, from Security, and José Manuel García Margallo, from Foreign Affairs. Also that of the former government delegate in Catalonia Enric Milo.
In addition to Puigdemont (proposed by Junts, who did not want to specify whether or not this would be done by videoconference), other former senior officials of the Catalan government will also be cited, such as former Interior Minister Joaquim Forn. .
Convicts and victims
Likewise, those in charge of the National Police – former director general Germán López, former head of Catalonia Sebastián Trapote Gutiérrez and commissioner general of Information Enrique Barón – and regional authorities must appear before the commission. This is the case of the leader of the Mossos d’Esquadra at the time of the events, Major José Luís Trapero.
The list is completed by the lawyer Agustí Carles i Garau, the journalists Francesc Sallés and Enric Hernández, as well as Javier Martínez Espínola, representative of the victims.
Mohamed Houli Chemnal, convicted of the double attack and currently serving his sentence in the Cordoba Penitentiary Center, will also be questioned, as well as several residents of Alcanar and the president of the Ripoll mosque where the imam worked.
