Spanish investigating judge Manuel García-Castellón has agreed to ask the Spanish National Police's information services if it holds any police reports related to Russian spies who could have visited Barcelona between 2014 and 2019, to attach to the Democratic Tsunami case, according to a court resolution to which ElNacional.cat has had access this Tuesday. The request for the reports was made by the two injured Spanish police officers who are conducting their own private prosecution in the Tsunami case, and who had seen references to these reports in "journalistic information". Nothing more. No connection is detailed between the alleged Russian spies and the 12 people investigated for terrorism in the Tsunami case, for promoting mass demonstrations against the Supreme Court's sentencing of the pro-independence leaders trial in 2019.
Specifically, the lawyer for the two policemen injured in the protests, Josep Maria Fuster-Fabra, explained in the letter that "he has not found [the reports] in the case summary for Tsunami", but requests the reports on "Russian spies who were expert in sabotage and murder", which were mentioned in Spanish news media. And in a decision this Monday, the National Audience judge dictates that the parties be notified that he will "admit the request" which is to be passed on to the Spanish police to "report on the instances of interest to the party".
Case closed in 2021
Another relevant circumstance is that, in May 2021, judge García-Castellón himself closed a secret investigation into alleged links of Russians with the Catalan independence movement. The National Audience prosecutor asserted that the suspicions, which were, in fact, made from a report by the Spanish police, were not even evidence and were based on press stories.
Volhov case and high treason
Despite the lack of evidence and relationship with Tsunami, the judge in the Volhov case, Joaquín Aguirre, who is investigating a possible relationship between exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont's entourage and some Russians, has also asked his opposite number at the National Audience, that if he finds these police reports, quoted in the press, to take a copy so that the Volhov judge can decide if it has any connection with his investigation. The Volhov case focuses on whether irregular financing was being directed towards the Catalan exile headquarters at Waterloo and if any attempt was made to commit the crime of high treason or against state institutions for the alleged relations with Russians as part of a plot to promote the independence of Catalonia in 2017.
Puigdemont in the Supreme Court
Regarding the Democratic Tsunami case, the Supreme Court decided, last week, that it is competent to investigate Carles Puigdemont for terrorism, due to his capacity as a deputy for Junts in the European Parliament, and also gave the same affirmation with respect to the ERC Catalan deputy, Rubén Wagensberg, who has recently shifted his residence to Switzerland, while the other 10 defendants have been returned to the National Court judge.
The Supreme Court's resolution takes a very radical line, comparing the demonstrations promoted by the Tsunami protest platform to the "street terrorism" of the kale borroka arising out of the ETA armed conflict ethos. And it adds that Puigdemont allegedly committed his crime of terrorism as a "mediated author", that is to say through others, who encouraged the disorders to subvert the constitutional order through the demonstrators.
Now, the investigator of the Supreme Court in the Tsunami case, judge Susana Polo, must decide whether to cite Puigdemont and Wagensberg to declare as under investigation. To do so, she would first have to request that the European Parliament lift his parliamentary immunity, as Pablo Llarena did in the Catalan independence leaders' case.