Puigdemont insists on his immunity as a MEP to ask the Court of Auditors to paralyze the procedure

MADRID, 16 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The defense of the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont has insisted on the status of MEP of the leader and the immunity that this entails to ask the Court of Auditors to paralyze the proceedings against him.

This is how the lawyer Gonzalo Boye has pronounced in the framework of the preliminary hearing that has been held in the supervisory body on the alleged diversion of funds for the expenses of 1-O and the external action of the 'procés', within the framework of the procedure that is being followed against Puigdemont, his former vice president Oriol Junqueras and other former government officials, from whom the Prosecutor's Office claims 3.4 million euros --jointly and severally-- for accounting liability.

"The continuation of the procedure without the request is a violation of immunity and that generates an annulment with respect to this procedure," said the lawyer. "We are not saying that the European Parliament is going to lift his immunity or not. But this procedure cannot continue," he added, while stressing that if the Supreme Court has to request a petition, the Court of Auditors must also do so.

In this sense, Boye has stressed that the same would apply to former ministers Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí. "This procedure should not continue, at least with regard to the three of them," he said.

In this preliminary hearing, the parties have raised the "procedural exceptions" that they have deemed appropriate. Thus, the procedure for the accounting responsibility of the 'procés' has entered its final stretch with dozens of former government officials as defendants and the Prosecutor's Office and Catalan Civil Society (SCC) as accusations.

Last April, the Public Ministry filed a lawsuit against 35 former government officials where it also asked to remove former directors Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull, as well as 14 other people, from the list of possible accountants, a petition to the that the TCu finally agreed.

In its demand, the Public Ministry lowered the estimates of the supervisory body on the allegedly deviated figure. Specifically, it went from the 9.5 million calculated by the TCu to 3.4 million euros: 2.2 million related to foreign action expenses and 1.2 million linked to the referendum on October 1, 2017.

For its part, the Catalan Civil Society filed a lawsuit against 11 former senior government officials, including Junqueras, Puigdemont and also former Catalan president Artur Mas, for the expenses of 1-O and the foreign action of the Generalitat. In his case, he claimed 5.3 million euros for accounting liability.

Initially, the TCu set at 5.4 million euros the accounting liability related to Catalonia's foreign action through the so-called 'Catalan embassies' and the Consell de la Diplomàcia Pública de Catalunya, known as 'Diplocat', and estimated at 4.1 million expenses related to 1-O. As both actions have been merged into a single procedure, the total amount reached 9.5 million euros.