First it was the Spanish treasury under the orders of Cristobal Montoro, of the Partido Popular (PP); now it is the Spanish treasury led by María Jesús Montero, of the Socalists (PSOE), but the conclusion is still the same: there was no crime of misuse of public funds in holding the Catalan referendum of October 1st 2017, nor in its preparation. Some spending has been attributed to the 1st October vote in certain categories mostly related to the Diplocat offices abroad, but this does not reach the sum of 200,000 euros that the law sets as the minimum for it to be regarded as misappropriation of funds. It is all described in detail in a report that the treasury has delivered to Barcelona's Court 13 which started the investigation - a report that should be key when the Supreme Court and the public prosecutors reach the moment when they review their conclusions.
The position of the treasury ministry is not surprising, since it would seem strange that something which Mariano Rajoy and Montoro were not able to find, despite having searched for it, would be discovered now by the Socialists. In a country that was at least halfway serious, the report should on its own be a problem for the prosecutors and the court itself. As the weeks go by, allegations of offences are crumbling, and yet at the Supreme Court and the Public Prosecutors Office, no-one wants to know. It is now plainly obvious that the sedition and rebellion charges have no credibility with any minimally-serious legal expert. The European countries where exiled Catalan politicians have been present didn't believe the accusations either, and after those countries' court hearings of the exiled politicians, they were released, and the extradition orders filed by Spain were withdrawn.
Nevertheless, the general case against the independence movement continues on course without listening to reason. By pushing blindly onwards, the only place it is heading is towards the international discredit of Spanish institutions - in this case, of the judiciary, which will be spectacularly depreciated in a few years if it continues on its current path. All this, however, seems to be pooh-poohed with the argument that when the time comes, who knows where we all shall be? The Spanish state decided to pay this cost long ago and, for the same reason, it also continues to hold the Catalan political prisoners in provisional jail in defiance of all logic and, in cases such as that of the Jordis, having now passed the chilling milestone of 400 days in jail without trial or any expectation of release before a trial is held.
No change will occur anywhere on this front, but two points must be repeated again and again: the sedition and rebellion offences don't exist and, therefore, the case should be returned to the Catalan High Court; and in view of the fact that the treasury also concludes that no misuse of funds took place, the only charge left should be disobedience. When all is said and done, the case invented by the monarchy, Spanish political powers, the justice system and the media, consists only of that. Another issue altogether is what it wants to achieve, and in that it has a lot more in common with Franco's court, the Tribunal de Orden Público, than present-day justice should have.