The 'Tsunami' judge asks Switzerland to locate Marta Rovira and report on her banking movements

MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court investigating Tsunami Democràtic for its role in the riots that followed the Supreme Court ruling that condemned the leaders of the Catalan independence 'procés' in the fall of 2019 has issued a rogatory commission to Switzerland to locate to the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, one of the main people investigated.

In an order from this Tuesday, collected by Europa Press, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, also addresses a Swiss bank to transfer information from Rovira's accounts: from the movements in his account to loans and checks issued.

The magistrate justifies this decision by referring to a conversation tapped on the phone of Josep Lluís Alay, the head of the office of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, in which reference is made to the financing of the independence platform. Specifically, in it he infers that "it is possible to offer money to Tsunami" through an account in Switzerland.

Furthermore, the request to the Swiss authorities finds its origin in "the residence in Switzerland of the aforementioned investigated, Marta Rovira, and her alleged participation in the terrorist organization", which leads the judge to request Switzerland to proceed "to inform about its location."

In his resolution, García Castellón explains that Rovira "has been on the run from Spanish justice since March 2018, residing in Switzerland." Furthermore, he remembers that she "with high probability was the user of the Threema app with the pseudonym 'Matagalls'."

The judge points out that the official presentation of Tsunami occurred on September 2, 2019, receiving "direct support from various and prominent figures on the Catalan political spectrum, and leading leaders of the independence movement, such as" Puigdemont or the former vice president of the Generalitat Oriol Junqueras.

"However, the person who retweeted the first Tsunami message the fastest was Marta Rovira. It only took her three minutes to read the tweet, retweet it, think of a comment and transcribe it (40 words, spread over 225 characters with spaces). It is suspected Therefore, he could have been at the Geneva meeting in which the Tsunami action was planned and organized," the magistrate points out.

In this context, the judge points out that "in a conversation held on October 3, 2019 between Marta Rovira (alias Matagalls) and the investigated person" Xavier Vendrell, former ERC deputy. "People are being recruited to carry out your action who are discussing it with the management," Rovira reportedly pointed out, explaining that there are "certain problems in completing the assignment."

"I suppose that, since it is not seen as a dangerous action and/or does not have the morbidity of the polls, the staff has relaxed... I try to establish order, but since there is no sense of single command, everyone doubt everything. It's not being easy, the morale of the troops is affected. I think that when the first actions go well everyone will react, but it's hard to get going," Vendrell would have snapped.

The magistrate also mentions a message from October 14, 2019 in which Rovira "tells Vendrell to congratulate the world." That same day, he remembers, "was the day that the Tsunami blocking action took place at the Barcelona-El Prat Airport."

It should be remembered that in the framework of the same case, the magistrate went to Switzerland in December 2019, precisely, to transfer banking information of a similar nature. The Swiss authorities responded in March 2021 to deny the request for cooperation made by the National Court.

Now, the instructor requires Switzerland to complete his current request, which "allows establishing a relationship with the crime that is the subject of these actions, which is useful and necessary for its effective investigation."