There is no clearer way to explain the solitude of judge Joaquín Aguirre in his inventiveness about the alleged Russian plot to support the Catalan independence movement than the way in which the National Audience judge Manuel García-Castellón has washed his hands of his colleague in Barcelona Court No 1. There is no evidence of Russian interference, only opinions. The response would be rather amusing if it weren't for the fact that we are talking about a judge who has important decisions in his hands and who, time and again, finds his actions being corrected from the Barcelona Audience or the anticorruption prosecutors, and who transforms the rulings he makes into an endless work of fiction, in which nothing matches reality. The dates don't match and the facts even less. All of this would not be of great importance if it weren't for the fact that the person leading it is a judge and that, moreover, his ultimate goal is to be able to accuse the president-in-exile Carles Puigdemont and the president Artur Mas, among others, of a crime of treason.
García-Castellón, facing the judicial requests made by Aguirre, who demanded an investigation by the General Information Commission of the Spanish police, has notified him of a resolution he issued in July 2020 in which he closed an investigation into "an alleged cyber attack devised and perpetrated by people related to the Catalan independence movement and members of agencies of the Russian Federation" due to lack of evidence and about which he assures that "there are only opinions". The National Audience judge is not well regarded by independentism, not by a long shot. In fact, some of those investigated in the Democratic Tsunami case accuse him of leading a general investigation against the Catalan independence movement in an irregular manner, to the extent of conducting an irregular exploration that has gone on for seven years, starting in 2017 and with a number of fragmented sub-cases.
Judge Aguirre's only objective is to prevent those investigated from being able to benefit from the amnesty law, through this new crime of treason
In fact, the National Audience judge has kept the Democratic Tsunami case open since October 2019, and last November he ruled that there are indications of terrorism offences incriminating 12 people, including Carles Puigdemont, whose investigation for terrorism was taken over by the Supreme Court because of the partial immunity he has from his elected office, as well as the case against ERC deputy Ruben Wagensberg, for exactly the same reason. But back to Aguirre. The time has come for the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to intervene in the matter and put an end to it, since it is quite clear that his only objective is to prevent those investigated from being able to benefit from the amnesty law, through this new crime of treason. A la carte crimes with a single objective are found here, and if you need to open separate pieces, they can be opened without any problems. Also without any basis.
There is no Russian plot. Nothing could be proven, or demonstrated. But there is a huge media literature on the subject. A book has even been published by a journalist residing in Washington DC who works for Spain's ABC newspaper, which in its synopsis says that "around October 1st, 2017, Barcelona became a den of "spies, disinformation and treason". It certainly sounds attractive, and in a book it can be done. In the same way, one can ask oneself: "How far was Vladimir Putin willing to take his alliance with the independentists?" But a court order is something else. Or it should be. With very good reason, lawyer Gonzalo Boye affirms that the judge's decision is illegal and an abuse of his authority because it disregards the ruling of the Barcelona Audience, from May, instructing Aguirre to close the Volhov case, opened four years ago. And also an abuse of his authority, because he doesn't want to apply the amnesty.