In the hands of the judge. The trial of the former Catalan member of parliament for the CUP party, Antonio Baños, for refusing to respond to Vox during the 2019 pro-independence leaders' trial is over, and it did not even last an hour, with one of the reasons being that Baños gave up his right to testify because he could not do so in Catalan, a request reiterated at the start of the hearing. Baños said that he did not accept having to "speak in a foreign language and being tried out of jurisdiction". The court rejected the defence lawyer's request, claiming that the only official language in the Community of Madrid - where the matter is being tried - is Spanish. "It's not a whim, the law of the judicial power says so", said judge Hortensia de Oro-Pulido Sanz, adding that "if you want to express yourself here, you have to do it in Spanish; you do not have the right [of doing so in Catalan]." The judge's opposition to the measure was also supported by the prosecutor, who recalled that Baños understands and speaks Spanish perfectly. Defence lawyer Carlos López protested that they made the request to testify in Catalan before the trial - on Monday - and regretted that no response was given until this Thursday and it was "on the fly and improvised". He also denounced "a violation of fundamental rights". As the judge suspended the interrogation of the defendant, López is considering presenting a question of nullity in the event of a conviction.
Sentence demand reduced
With the trial of Antonio Baños taking place the day after that of fellow CUP politician Eulàlia Reguant in the Supreme Court with an identical charge and circumstances - the only difference being that Reguant, as a current MP, was tried in a higher court, which did permit her to testify in Catalan - the Madrid prosecutor in today's trial aligned himself with that of the Supreme Court and, before the start of the hearing, lowered the sentence he was demanding for Baños, from 6 to 4 months in prison and a ban on public office holding of the same length, as demanded in Reguant's higher court case on Wednesday. "There was a constant, repeated and manifest refusal to answer the questions of all the parties", argued the prosecutor, recalling that the job of the presiding judge is to filter the questions asked, not "to act as an intermediary between the witness and the parties".
Call for acquittal
In turn, the defendant's lawyer insisted that his client "did not refuse to testify" in the 2019 trial: "he did not object to answering the questions, but there was an opposition to the person who was asking them". In this way, he emphasized that Baños initially accepted the formula proposed by Marchena, in February 2019, when the ex-MP, called as a witness, refused to respond to the lawyer representing far-right Vox, which was conducting a private prosecution in the case as permitted under Spanish law. As projected at the beginning of the trial, Baños responded to Vox's questions when they were conveyed to him by judge Manuel Marchena - on two occasions - but once the CUP politician asked for a clarification of who it was he was responding to, the Supreme Court judge suddenly suspended the testimony. As the lawyer explained, "it is not a usual way to carry out the interrogation; it caused doubts". As a result of this, López demanded the acquittal of Baños, insisting that it cannot be considered serious disobedience. The ex-deputy's only intervention was before entering the courts in Madrid, where he recalled that "fascism is never an opinion, it is a crime". "Any decent person should always isolate the far right anywhere; it's no longer a joke and neither are they marginal," he underlined.
The trial was held in the court number 30 of Madrid because Baños is no longer a member of parliament and, therefore, has lost his semi-protected status, and is therefore tried in an ordinary court of Madrid, the jurisdiction in which the alleged crime was committed, unlike his former CUP colleague, Eulàlia Reguant, who was tried on Wednesday at the Supreme Court, also accused of serious disobedience.