Judge Pablo Llarena has ordered the Spanish treasury minister, Cristóbal Montoro, to inform him as soon as possible of the basis for his statement that not a single euro of public money was spent on the organisation of last year's Catalan independence referendum. The Supreme Court judge says that Montoro's comments contradict the evidence in the court documentation.
In a newly-released ruling, Llarena asks for evidence to back up Montoro's statements. Specifically, "the objective basis for his statements in which he supposedly expressed the certainty of the absence of public expense in the organisation of the vote held in Catalonia on 1st October 2017", which the judge says "contradicts the sources of evidence collected during this investigation".
The judge has issued the ruling after this week's arraignment hearings during which a number of those under investigation have referred to the minister's comments and the "lack of justification of the crime of misuse of public funds for which they are facing trial and for which European Arrest Warrants have been delivered against others".
According to the judge, the suspects have based their arguments on "statements in which the treasury minister supposedly expressed the certainty of the absence of public expense in the organisation of the vote held in Catalonia on 1st October 2017 which contradicts the sources of evidence collected during this investigation".
As such, he requires Montoro "to inform, as quickly as possible, over the concrete objective basis for such statements".
The investigation into the charge of misuse of public funds is under a secrecy injunction, in a separate file. The judge ordered the Civil Guard to investigate and Montoro's ministry sent various reports, 15 days ago, which apparently support the minister's version of events, that of no public money having been spent. The Catalan government has had its accounts under central government supervision since last summer, before the referendum.
In the investigation being carried out at the same time by Barcelona's court of instruction number 13, moreover, the providers of various material for the referendum testified that they never even charged for the material because they didn't know who to invoice.