Spain's Court of Auditors has sentenced Artur Mas, Joana Ortega, Irene Rigau, Francesc Homs and six others to pay back 4,946,788.16 euros (£4.3 million; $5.6 million) for the organisation of the Catalan independence "consultation" of 9th November 2014. The court believes they have responsibility for the accounts and that public money was used.
At the time of the 2014 vote, Artur Mas was president of Catalonia, Joana Ortega was vice-president, Irene Rigau was education minister and Francesc Homs was presidency minister.
The sentence is joint which means they will have to pay the fine between all of them. That said, Mas is considered to have overall responsibility so will have to cover whatever the others don't pay. The verdict isn't final and can be appealed first to the same court's justice chamber and, as a last resort, to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Auditors initially claimed 5.2 million euros, money the defendants have already provided in security deposits with 2.8 million directly, and the balance guaranteed by the defendants' real estate.
The sentence takes into account the expenses deriving from the institutions' information campaign and the advertising campaigns, valued at more than 1,600,000 euros; the purchase of computers for 2,786,347 euros; everything in terms of ballot boxes, voting slips, envelopes and transport between polling stations for 160,000 euros; and the total bill in terms of web services and communications, 700,000 euros.
The ruling details the responsibility borne by each of the defendants and how much they will have to pay towards the final total.
The 2014 consultation was already subject to a criminal trial in the High Court of Justice of Catalonia two years ago. Mas, Ortega and Rigau were all banned from public office for up to two years. The Supreme Court, for its part, also banned Francesc Homs from public office. His trial was held in Madrid because, as a member of the Spanish Congress, he enjoyed aforado status, akin to parliamentary privilege.
Anti-independence organisation Societat Civil Catalana took alleged funding irregularities and the consultation's expenses to the Court of Auditors, leading to a second trial on 10th October. The new hearings revived the debate over the vote run by 40,000 volunteers and the prior ruling from the Constitutional Court which didn't make it clear whether or not it had to be suspended.