Spanish public prosecutors at the Court of Accounts assert that the fact that the amnesty legislation has already had the essential approval from Congress is not enough to bring to a halt any independence process legal procedure which will be covered by it. For this reason, the prosecutors have asked the public auditing tribunal to carry on as planned, and deliver its verdict on former Catalan presidents Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, former vice-president Oriol Junqueras, and 32 other ex-officials, which, in the view of the prosecutors, should require them to forfeit the massive sums already paid as guarantees: the amount of 883,695 euros spent on organizing the referendum of 1st October, 2017 and 2,208,503 euros of expenditure on promoting Catalonia abroad between 2011 and 2017 which would thus be returned to the Catalan government, as stated in the written conclusions presented this Tuesday. In total, 3,092,198 euros, which the private prosecution carried out by anti-independence pressure group Societat Civil Catalana raises to more than 5 million euros.
"The transformation of a legislative proposal into a law that will extinguish the accounting liability that is set out here is a future fact and not exactly an unknown, but also not endowed with full certainty, as the date of entry into force of the law and its exact content and scope are not known," says prosecutor Manuel Martín-Granizo, maintaining his request for convictions of the former government leaders and administrators, after the Court of Accounts reactivated this case and gave the prosecution 10 days to present its conclusions. Now the defence lawyers of the 35 defendants, linked to the Junts and ERC political parties, will have another 10 days to present their final briefs. And then the tribunal - which is not, in fact, a full court - will issue a ruling. At that point, the amnesty law could already be in effect - since that is expected to occur at the end of May - and in that case, the demand to forfeit the money would be voided.
The responsibility of president Puigdemont
In its conclusions, the prosecution document states that "the accounting responsibility of president Carles Puigdemont is considered accredited, due to his status as the holder of highest responsibility in the Generalitat", as is that of the ministers convicted by the Supreme Court for misuse of public funds due to having approved expenses in their departments - Oriol Junqueras, Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa and Jordi Turull. It adds that in the demand to the Court of Accounts, the Catalan government ministers who were acquitted of misuse of funds by the Spanish high court were excluded; and like the Supreme Court, it also maintains the claim for return of funds against the two Catalan ministers still in exile who authorised referendum spending: Toni Comín, then the holder of the health portfolio, and Lluís Puig, in culture.
For the organization of the referendum, the prosecutor declares that the existence of a "real and effective underestimation" of the sum of 883,695 euros, the calculated expenditure that has to be returned to the Generalitat, has been proven. In the end, the prosecutor has reduced the total of the allegedly improper expenses by removing an invoice for call centre works, seeing that they were done previously and not only for the referendum; as well as the sum of 1 million euros for envelopes paid to Unipost, a sum which was never paid, and also the so-called 'Civisme' advertising campaign, with respect to which the expenditure included for the advertisements issued by the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA) was deducted.
Foreign promotion
With regard to the expenditure on Catalonia's foreign promotion, the prosecutor states that the accounting responsibility of presidents Mas and Puigdemont "derives from their participation and management of all the projects, strategies and procedures necessary to develop relations and activities in the international arena, exceeding the limits of the promotion abroad of the interests of Catalonia as a whole, which article 4 of the Foreign Action Law (LAE) allows the autonomous communities". And in these 2.2 million euros claimed, the prosecutor includes items ranging from payment of expenses for experts to the external promotion actions of the Diplocat foreign representation offices, until now unquestioned.