Just metres from each other, two trials are being held which threaten the Spanish judiciary due to their importance (political and sporting) and, above all, because nothing is turning out as planned. The most high-profile of the two is, without a doubt, the one in the Supreme Court trying the nine Catalan political prisoners. Entering its fifth week, having already heard from a number of prosecution witnesses, the most serious of the charges, rebellion, remains to be proven, like misuse of funds. This trial which, logically, has a very large portion of Catalan society on tenterhooks, is an outrage in every sense of the word since the general case against the independence movement has resulted in an investigation which is patently unsustainable and which has caused irreparable harm to the Catalan institutions, the imprisoned politicians and the exiles.
Much less high-profile is the trial in the National Audience court of Sandro Rosell, the former president of Futbol Club Barcelona accused of taking illegal commissions for matches in Brazil where he played middleman. Judge Lamela stubbornly kept him in prison without bail for almost two years although the former president offered as security all his assets, thereby exceeding the hypothetical quantity pursued and defrauded. It's been the case with the longest pretrial detention for a financial crime in legal history and Lamela, like prosecutors, wouldn't give in. All that happened before the start of the trial a couple of weeks ago now. The court trying him redressed the provisional detention in its first hearings and granted him conditional release without bail. This Monday, Dirk Hollstein, representative of the Saudi company which contracted Rosell's services, has testified as a witness for public prosecutors and, to their surprise, I guess, he's confirmed the former president's version of events and placed the Spanish justice system facing a serious problem.
Could it be there's not even a case and that Rosell has spent two years unjustly first in Soto del Real prison and then in Brians 2? Is that possible after everything we've read over these two years in judge Lamela's rulings? The same judge, by the way, who originally headed the investigation of the Catalan political prisoners. How important is it that during Rosell's presidency, the Concert per la llibertat ("Concert for freedom") was held at Camp Nou and the Via Catalana protest passed through the stadium? The fact that the two cases should overlap in time adds to existing worries over the Spanish justice system, which is seeing them dissolve like sugarcubes, beyond the charges drawn up and the two sets of case documents. It's obvious that Sandro Rosell's case being shelved would leave the Spanish justice system exposed with a case in the Supreme Court that will end up in Strasbourg.
Meanwhile, we know that police commissioner Villarejo said he earned a good living with the Catalan process. And he used reserved funds, something which has never been explained, but which had the basic objective of discrediting Catalan institutions, politicians and figures in civil society for the simple fact of being pro-independence. The swamp has been filling bit by bit for too long and has acted with limitless gall, supposedly in defence of the unity of Spain. And the stench is ever stronger. Soon it will be unbearable.