A surreal episode held up the start of this Friday's testimony by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in the ongoing trial against former minister Miquel Buch and police sergeant Lluís Escolà at the Barcelona Audience. The public prosecutor accuses Buch of having hired Escolà as an advisor to the Catalan interior ministry to cover up the fact that he was working to protect Puigdemont in his Belgian exile, and for this reason the Catalan president was summoned this Friday to testify as a witness in defence of the policeman. It was the first time that Puigdemont has taken part in a trial in Spain related to the independence process. However, first, problems with sound, and then the absence of a requested interpreter, prevented the testimony from getting under way, so that it had to be suspended as soon as it had begun.
An hour and a half later, it was finally possible to resume. And president Carles Puigdemont told the court that the police officer Lluís Escolà did not carry out security escort services for him in Waterloo and, in fact, he denounced that the Spanish interior ministry has prevented him from having the protection service that the law provides for former presidents of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
"In breach of the law"
The president described Escolà as a friend, who deserved "complete trust". "He is a patriot, and if he is on trial, it is because he has sacrificed himself for [Catalonia] and for no other reason. I have seen him suffer a lot and he was with me at times when the Spanish authorities violated their duty to enforce the law to guarantee my protection", explained Puigdemont.
In response to questions from his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, the exiled pro-independence leader recounted that on June 22nd, 2018, he had requested compliance with the 2003 regulation passed in the Parliament of Catalonia that assigns police protection to former Catalan presidents, but that the Spanish interior ministry refused to allow that. A decision that was "in breach of the law", he denounced. Despite this, he answered "absolutely not" to the questions about whether he had requested a protection service other than what was contemplated by the legislation.
He has also denied that Escolà had helped him leave the Spanish state, explaining that when he left his home at the end of October 2017 to cross the border out of the Spain state, accompanied by the policeman, there was no order that restricted his freedom of movement. Puigdemont insisted that during these years none of the Mossos agents who have been present at his Waterloo residence, known as the House of the Republic, have been there in official roles. "Security escorts carry weapons, wear vests, they have permission from the Spanish authorities. This has never happened, and I want to point out that [Spain's failure to do so] is in breach of current laws", he repeated in a response to the prosecutor.
The judge limits Boye
The president of the court, José Carlos Iglesias, forced Puigdemont's lawyer to stick closely to the issues linked to the events for which Buch and Escolà are being tried. He did not even allow Puigdemont to answer the question on whether he had ever been exposed to any incident that led to a dangerous situation during these years. The tug-of-war between the judge and the lawyer at a certain point caused the intervention of the Belgian judge, in the Brussels room with Puigdemont, interested in knowing the reason for the quarrel. "Tell him it's about technical issues," the Spanish judge said at one point, who was kept busy with Boye's questioning, the difficulties and sputtering of the translator and the demands of the Belgian judicial representatives.
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The initial problems, which were indeed partly technical, had begun almost immediately after Puigdemont, testifying by video conference from hundreds of kilometres away in Brussels judicial headquarters and accompanied by two representatives of the Belgian judiciary, had promised to tell the truth. The president began explaining that he knew Buch and Escolà because they are "friends". "I have a great love for them," he said.
And from here the problems started. The president of the court, José Carlos Iglesias, warned that the president's voice was not being heard properly and from Brussels they began to move the microphones over the table to try and improve the sound quality, but to no avail.
Interpreter
Once the difficulties with the sound had been overcome - "even if it sounds weak, I think we all understand", argued the judge - the questioning resumed and the next hurdle arrived. "The people from the Belgian justice system tell me that for them it is essential to have a French interpreter," warned Puigdemont.
The judge assured that everything had been readied for an interpreter. But there was no one there, and the judicial representatives insisted that it was essential that they could understand the content of the statement. The videoconference was cut and the hearing was also interrupted, while the court looked for a way out of a situation that bordered on the ridiculous.
Puigdemont acts as translator
Returning to the room after a few minutes, the court explained that in compliance with the legal provisions it had been requested that an interpreter be appointed, that it was confirmed that there would be a translator, and that, for reasons beyond the control of the court, the request had not materialized, but that arrangements had been made to arrange for the translator as soon as possible.
In order to make himself understood to the representatives of the Belgian judiciary, Judge Iglesias asked for Puigdemont's cooperation to act as an interpreter himself in the meantime, in order to ask them if it was possible for them to wait for the arrival of a translator or, otherwise, reschedule the testimony for July 13th. But this was impossible for the Catalan president, who has a European Parliament session on that date, so it was decided to await the translator's arrival.
At 1pm, the hearing was finally able to resume thanks to the arrival of an interpreter who took on the task, not without notable difficulties, of translating the questions that were put to Puigdemont.