New criticism made by the defence lawyer of Josep Lluís Alay, head of Carles Puigdemont's office, following the announcement by the National Audience court that it is to investigate the case of the Democratic Tsunami protest platform as a crime of terrorism and attributing to the platform the responsibility for the death of a French citizen, who suffered a heart attack during the protests of October 2019. Alay's defence team, led by Gonzalo Boye, has asked investigating judge Manuel García Castellón for a copy of the investigative steps he has taken in response to the EU directive 2017/541 relating to the fight against terrorism, and has asked him to activate the procedures for cooperation with the affected states and support for victims indicated by this directive.
This Monday, García Castellón resolved to include Carles Puigdemont in the Democratic Tsunami investigation, a case opened for alleged offences of terrorism, together with a dozen other people, including the general secretary of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), Marta Rovira, and the head of the president's office. In addition, the judge asked the Civil Guard to investigate the death during the protest at the Barcelona airport of a person of French nationality. Yesterday Alay demanded access to the full case, over which, he says, he has only obtained information through the media.
In today's submission, Alay's lawyer requests that, if the actions indicated by Union law are not being taken, the court should proceed, as a matter of urgency, to activate the instruments of legal cooperation established between EU member states; that the nationality of the dead man be brought to the immediate attention of the French authorities, if this end has not been fulfilled; and that the authorities of that country be asked for all the documentation on whether it has activated "any mechanism to consider the deceased as a victim of terrorism" and whether any of the measures provided for in the directive have been applied.
Terrorist origins of a heart attack
The lawyer's text asks whether, after four years of investigating the case, the court has fulfilled its obligations in accordance with the European directive, especially with regard to attention to the families of those who are now being presented as victims of an "alleged death of terrorist etiology", although the text points out that it is not known "since when the Penal Code or the directive 2017/541 relating to the fight against terrorism consider that a fatal heart disease is a terrorist etiology".
"There cannot be a procedure for an alleged crime of terrorism in which these facts are also linked to the death of a person and which, at the same time, has not fulfilled, in more than four years, the already cited Article 26 of the directive that places obligations on the state, with responsibilities in the hands of the investigator, with regard to a person who is a victim of a crime of terrorism," he adds.
As a result of all this, the lawyer demands that the court provide him with a copy of all proceedings taken in the case to comply with the European directive on the fight against terrorism; that in the event that action has not been taken in accordance with Union law, that the court proceed urgently to comply with this obligation; that the French authorities be informed, in this case, "of the serious situation of non-compliance in which this court would have incurred"; and to acquire from the French authorities all the documentation they have regarding whether France has activated "some type of mechanism to consider the deceased as a victim of terrorism".