The Prosecutor's Office opposes Andorra investigating Rajoy for 'Operation Catalonia' as it sees no evidence of a crime

He emphasizes that the rogatory commission sent by the Principality is generic and has a "political purpose"

MADRID, 8 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Madrid Prosecutor's Office has opposed Andorra investigating former president Mariano Rajoy for 'Operation Catalonia', considering that the rogatory commission presented by the Principality before the Spanish courts is written in "generic terms", has a "political purpose" and It does not collect evidence of crimes against the former leader of the PP.

"The generic and minimum terms in which the rogatory commission is written are absolutely insufficient to accept the cooperation of the Spanish judicial authorities in the imputation of acts as serious as the crimes listed, without providing a single indicative element or specific fact," concluded the deputy prosecutor for international cooperation of the Madrid Prosecutor's Office in a writing, to which Europa Press has had access.

As specified, the "only accusation" described in said rogatory commission refers to "unidentified" Spanish Police agents and with respect to Rajoy or former minister Cristóbal Montoro, their alleged participation is not specified or mentioned.

For the Public Ministry, this is "revealing" of the "lack of sufficient evidentiary elements to judicially collaborate in the accusation of Spanish citizens based on complaints filed by associations that, although they are Andorran, it is public and well-known that they have a close relationship with Catalan associations".

It should be remembered that the Justice of the Principality is investigating Rajoy, Montoro and former ministers Jorge Fernández Díaz for alleged crimes of coercion, threats, blackmail, extortion, coercion of constitutional bodies and creation of a false document due to its alleged relationship with the attempts to know " through illegal means" secret banking information of the former presidents of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas, as well as the former vice president Oriol Junqueras.

Specifically, the facts reported in the complaints are related to alleged extortion, coercion and blackmail since 2014 by agents of the National Police against officials of the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) to obtain bank information "through illegal means". secret protected by Andorran legislation" of several rulers of Catalonia and their relatives, including Pujol, Mas and Junqueras.

For the Prosecutor's Office, some data collected in the rogatory commission are "revealing the political purpose behind" this criminal procedure being followed in Andorra. On this point, he refers to the investigations that were carried out in Spain against Mas and Pujol and has defended that all these investigations were carried out with all procedural guarantees.

In its letter, signed in January 2023 and notified a few weeks ago, the Public Ministry has defended that "as inferred from the scant description of facts of the rogatory commission, the alleged facts would not constitute a crime in Spain" due to "lacking elements essential".

On this point, he has stressed that in the case of the crimes of extortion and coercion on constitutional bodies "it is not indicated, not even superficially, how and in what way and/or from where the violence or intimidation was exercised and in what way it was carried out." influenced any of the Andorran institutions".

In this sense, the Prosecutor's Office has indicated that the crime described in the rogatory commission "bears many similarities with the crime of rebellion of the Spanish Penal Code, whose elements need not be analyzed here, but which have recently been interpreted by our Supreme Court."

"Of course, no fact constituting this crime is described, and even less so that any of the defendants mentioned may have committed it from Spain," the prosecutor added.

Regarding the crimes of coercion, conditional threats and blackmail, the Public Ministry has stressed that "it does not indicate who specifically the crime was committed, by whom, from where, how, what the threat was made or the business or act carried out." to the detriment of one's own assets or those of third parties". This being the case, he has not seen it pertinent to attribute these crimes to Rajoy or Montoro.

"The same can be said of the crime of document falsification, of which it is not indicated which document has been falsified and by whom, missing all the elements of the crime that is also attributed to a public official," he added.

However, the Prosecutor's Office has considered that in this case the Andorran jurisdiction does not have jurisdiction to hear the crimes that are mentioned in the rogatory commission or to investigate Spanish citizens with permanent residence in Spain "since it does not describe any action that has taken place." took place in the territory of Andorra". And it has spoiled the fact that the Andorran authority has not justified its own competence" for this procedure.

Already in September 2022, the Public Ministry requested that Rajoy's appeal be considered, considering that his right to defense and constitutional principles had been violated when processing the rogatory commission sent by the Andorran authorities for the complaint being investigated in the Principality. .

The Provincial Court of Madrid agreed with the prosecutor's criteria and agreed with Rajoy, although it recognized that her statement came late because in practice the judicial assistance had been completed.

The defenses of Rajoy, Fernández Díaz and Montoro have repeatedly alleged that their rights have been violated because the Court of Instruction 32 of Madrid, when processing the aforementioned rogatory, did not carry out the "prior control of legality in accordance with national and conventional legislation on international cooperation".

In an appeal for reform presented this week, Fernández Díaz's defense, led by lawyer Jesús Mandri, has insisted on requesting that the international judicial assistance requested by Andorra be denied, understanding that the rogatory commission "does not meet" the "requirements." minimum" required, "affects the sovereignty, security, public order, as well as other essential interests of the Kingdom of Spain."