A significant change. The public prosecutor's office serving Spain's Court of Accounts has reduced by well over half the monetary amount it is demanding from the members of the Catalan governments of Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont for having organized the 2017 independence referendum and promoting the independence process abroad. Specifically, the initial demand was for 9 million euros spread between the two cases, now being tried together, and that has now been reduced to 3.4 million euros. The public prosecutors announced in a statement today that this change had been made after it has reviewed the items more carefully, although it maintains the charges against 35 Catalan government officials over a total of 29 accounting items. For its part, the private prosecution conducted by the anti-independence pressure group Societat Civil Catalana has already lodged its indictment demands, which have also reduced the sum claimed, to 5.3 million euros, but with just eleven politicians accountable, including president Carles Puigdemont and seven former ministers.
The public prosecutors had until Tuesday to formalize their case against the officials of the Catalan pro-independence governments, and they have presented a 130-page document. It reduces the estimated illegal spending on the 1st October referendum from 3.9 million euros to 1.1 million euros. In the case of Catalan foreign spending, from a sum of 5 million euros originally, it is now claimed that 2.2 million euros was spent on independence-related matters. The politicians' defence arguments had already asserted the absurdity of considering fraudulent the expenses of all Catalan foreign ministry trips abroad from 2011 to 2017 intended to promote Catalonia, simply because in some cases a conference or a statement had been made on the Catalan independence process in the course of these visits, such as the case of former Catalan president Artur Mas in the United States.
Defendants
With regard to the 1st October referendum, the prosecutors state that "it has established a principle of legal certainty, using the same criteria as the Supreme Court with regard to the proven facts of the sentence, the convictions and their authority". Thus, government ministers Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa and Jordi Turull are said to be responsible for the cost of the 2017 vote. Ministers Toni Comín and Lluís Puig, in exile, are also included, with the text stating that, although they have not been tried, the sentence of the 2019 trial indicates that their departments incurred voting expenses. President Puigdemont is accused in the text "due to his position as head of government."
The prosecutors adds that it is not targetting those already acquitted of misuse of funds: Josep Rull, Joaquim Forn, Carles Mundó, Santi Vila and Meritxell Borràs. It does not demand anything from Meritxell Serret or Clara Ponsatí, in exile. In addition, it also rules out the two auditors of the Generalitat, Rosa Vidal and Mireia Vidal, who were initially in the auditing tribunal's report. Both are also being investigated in another criminal trial still underway in Barcelona on the organization of the referendum. The prosecutor, however, states that it is not acting against the auditors because the experts have stated that "it is not proven that the expenditure was audited in any of the phases of execution of public expenditure."
Unipost and CTTI, not included
Two other government officials in 2017 who are still facing trial in yet another case - current ERC deputy, Josep Maria Jové, and current minister of culture, Natalia Garriga - are also relieved of responsibility as the text does not include the works (valued at around 1.3 million euros) carried out on the call centre at Catalonia's Centre for Telecommunications and Information Technologies, used during the referendum, but also both before and after it. Jové and Garriga Both are expected to be tried in the High Court of Catalonia for playing roles in the referendum organization. Francesc Sutrías, director general of assets for the Catalan government is also removed from the charge lists.
The prosecutors also notes that a contract with the private mail company Unipost worth 1.1 million euros for delivery of registered letters was signed in a "secret and clandestine way" but that "it is considered proven, as the sentence says, that the service was not executed," while details of "cancellation of invoices" and other Unipost company documentation support the argument that the company carried out no work and made no profit in connection with the independence vote - a fact that could have effects on still another case which remains in process - the criminal case relating to Unipost alleged actions, with about 30 people investigated, including the-then director general of the firm, Pablo Reventós. From this group under investigation, a Barcelona judge ordered the payment of more than 5 million euros as a bail bond, which was covered by the Catalan Solidarity fund.
The prosecutors state that it does include the amount of 61,879 euros spent on referendum visual material and concludes that the expenditure it considers unjustified over the 1st October referendum totals 1 million euros.
Ideological freedom
With regard to the foreign spending case, the prosecutors state that they maintain four principles: freedom of opinion, analysis of the non-invasion of the exclusive competence of the state and unity of action within the public prosecutors office. Applying these principles, many expenses not solely related to the independence process were excluded from the case. The text does not detail the people who are accused, although it indicates that the two presidents, Mas and Puigdemont, and intermediate positions, are among them. It excludes most of the expenses from Diplocat. The total amount claimed is 2,209,503 euros, while the amount of the provisional Court of Accounts claim was 5,150,711 euros. In this case, Sociedad Civil Catalana claims that 1,843,471 euros must be returned by officials.
Guarantees
The public prosecutors' major amendments coincide with the recent change in the Court of Accounts' criteria over accepting the guarantees from the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF), covering the expenses attributed to ex-presidents Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, ex-vice president Oriol Junqueras and the other former senior government officials,for the 5.4 million euros originally calculated as the sum spent on the independence process by the Catalan government foreign ministries from 2011 to 2017. The resolution included very harsh criticism of the auditing tribunal's refusal to accept the guarantees previously under its delegated investigator, Esperanza Garcia. It asserted that García's resolution "lacks legal content in its expression of a deductive, irrational and absurd process, constructed on the basis of an erroneous premise, which is the attribution of judicial functions." One of the three judges, however, stated in a separate vote that the investigator had acted correctly.
The reduction of the spending total attributed to the case by the public prosecutors will also have effects on the ICF guarantees, managed by the Catalan economy ministry, under Jaume Giró, which will finally have to be provided to the Court of Accounts. The reduction of responsibilities could also have an effect on several still-pending criminal cases centred on those involved in organizing the 1st October referendum and the foreign affairs case.