Yet another case of those being investigated by Spanish judicial authorities in relation to Catalonia's independence referendum has now moved towards court. This Friday, the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) formally indicted Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó, senior Catalan government officials in 2017, for offences of disobedience, malfeasance, misuse of public funds and disclosure of secrets, for their participation in the organization of the 1st October 2017 referendum.
They have been summonsed to appear on 11th March and as of now have to surrender their passports, are prohibited from leaving the country, and must present themselves before the court once a month. They are also required to post large bail sums corresponding to their alleged public liability: €2,889,000 in the case of Jové, and €1,635,000 in the case of Salvadó.
The investigating judge says that Jové, in his role as secretary general of the Catalan ministries of vice-presidency, economy and finance "took an active part in the preparations for the referendum of 1st October 2017" as well as "in other illicit acts to obtain the corresponding funding in the foreseeable case that the votes in favour of independence in the illegal referendum were greater than the negatives." According to the evidence presented, the judge considers that Jové, in his position of responsibility, obtained data on citizens which he had no power to facilitate or handle. Likewise, the judge details in the indictment document that Jové "ignored the rulings of the Constitutional Court by actively participating in the search for premises where the referendum was to be carried out".
The judge quotes two documents which, previously, were controversial exhibits in the Supreme Court independence leaders' trial: Jové's own Moleskine diary and the PowerPoint document known as Enfocats found when his home was searched on 20th September 2017. According to the court, these documents show that the accused "knew about and authorized certain expenses to carry out the illegal referendum", amounting to more than €2,100,000. "All these expenses must have been overseen by Mr Jové, in his capacity as the coordinator of the referendum, according to his own annotations, as well as through his position as secretary general of the Catalan ministry of the vice-presidency, economy and finance, and through his formal responsibility from July 2017 in the area of electoral processes and public consultations", says the court document.
As for Lluís Salvadó, secretary of the treasury in the Catalan vice-presidency ministry from January 2016, he, like Jové, is alleged to "have planned that it was necessary to prepare the state structures and adequate funding for Catalonia for when it became independent". Salvadó is claimed by the court to be the "one responsible for conceiving the Programme for homogenization of processes and internal mechanisms or processing of taxes and contributions that the public sector or the Catalan government paid to the Spanish state", all for the purpose of ensuring sufficient tax collection. This plan was not implemented, although it was approved by the Catalan government in April 2017, and was to affect all local authorities, public universities, the Catalan health service and, in short, the entire public sector of the Catalan administration, without, says the indictment document, any appropriate notification of this: the Spanish state's Tax Agency was not notified, nor the the appropriate tax coordination bodies, nor was the plan published in official gazettes.
According to the TSJC judge, the evidence shows that the programme was intended to "take control of state taxes and contributions based on the regional and local public institutions and taxpayer tax information". The programme cost more than €1,200,000 according to the investigation.