A Barcelona provincial court has thrown out a case which began almost four years ago against the pro-independence local mayors of the Catalan Municipalities Association (ACM). The court alleges violation of the fundamental rights of those being investigated and gives a slap on the hand to both the investigating judge of Barcelona court 16 who brought the case, and the public prosecutor involved.
The resolution to close the case states that the proceedings violated the rights to a defence of those being investigated as well as their right to privacy: "From all that has been presented, it can be concluded that the investigation conducted by the public prosecutors infringed essential principles expressly set out in its statute, such as the principle of defence and the principle of contradiction." "In addition, the prosecutors accessed information - protected by the fundamental right to privacy - despite presenting virtually no justification of their need to access it, and thus putting those being investigated in a situation of being unable to defend themselves”, said the judges of the Barcelona Audience court in their ruling.
The nine defendants in the case were being prosecuted for misuse of public funds and fraud after the court 16 judge admitted the prosecution's complaint over irregularities in the Catalan Municipalities Association. The case revolved around alleged illegal funding of the independnece process through the ACM and the travel agency Viatges Alemany, specifically focused on payments for trips to Waterloo, Belgium, where exiled president Carles Puigdemont is based.
On December 22nd, 2017, the investigation began, based on an anonymous tip-off to the Mossos d'Esquadra police. In parallel, an operation was also conducted for the public prosecutors by the Spanish National Police involving its fraud unit (UDEF). The alleged misuse of funds by the ACM for independence process purposes was investigated, suspecting a kind of covert funding of the independence process and the Catalan pro-independence exiles. To support the complaint, confidential information was requested from the Spanish tax and the social security agencies. During the year that the investigation continued, none of the defendants were informed or questioned.
According to today's court ruling, "all the requisites to declare the case null and void are met" and the evidence also inferred that "this violation of rights had a direct effect on the complaint and on the interlocutory judgment of the investigating judge who admitted it for hearing." And they inform the investigating judge that he should not have admitted the complaint for processing.
The Barcelona Audience is especially harsh with the investigating judge of Barcelona's court 16, whom it accuses of mounting a fishing expedition: it was a "clearly prospective investigation" which tried to cover up its lack of evidence against the defendants, says the court, adding that there was no supervision or control of the Spanish police while they carried out their investigation.
Trips to Waterloo
The ACM has become known in recent years as a group which supports the political strategy of the Catalan independence process and has organized trips in support of president Carles Puigdemont. But these trips have already been investigated over the last two years by Spanish public prosecutors.
In September 2018, prosecutors in Catalonia closed a fruitless investigation into an event involving 167 Catalan mayors in Brussels (Belgium) with the participation of president Carles Puigdemont, held on November 7th, 2017.
At that time, the prosecutor José Joaquín Pérez de Gregorio stated that there were no indications that the expenses of travel, accommodation and meeting venue rental "came, in whole or in part, from public funds of their respective councils".
The trip and the event were organized by the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) as well as the ACM, at a cost to the two associations of 63,870 euros and 13,322 euros, respectively, as the ACM told prosecutors.
ACM emphasises seriousness of the violation
This afternoon, the former presidents of the ACM, former Catalan interior minister Miquel Buch and current MP David Saldoni de Tena, and the former secretary of the association Marc Pifarré issued a statement celebrating the court decision, and focusing on the gravity of the violation of rights recognized by the ruling. "The court acknowledges that the prosecution's investigation was carried out in violation of our rights to a defence and the principle of contradiction. If we had been able to exercise those rights, this complaint would never have been accepted for investigation," they point out.
Main image: Headquarters of the Barcelona Audience provincial court. / Photo: Europa Press.