The judge denies Baños a translator in the trial for disobedience: "I will not receive your statement in Catalan"

The Prosecutor's Office lowers his prison request from six to four months

MADRID, 29 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The head of the Criminal Court Number 30 of Madrid has rejected that the former deputy of the CUP in the Parliament of Catalonia Antonio Baños declare in Catalan in the trial against him for an alleged crime of serious disobedience to the authority for having refused to answer the questions of the popular accusation of Vox during the procés trial, where he appeared as a witness in February 2019.

"In the Community of Madrid, the official language is Spanish. If you want to express yourself here, you have to express yourself in Spanish. I am not going to appoint an interpreter for you," Judge Hortensia Oro-Pulido said. "I am not going to receive your statement in Catalan because I have no obligation. You have an obligation to express yourself in Spanish. Think about it or talk to your lawyer," she added.

From the defense of Baños they have insisted that the request for an interpreter has not been made for the accused, but for the court and the Prosecutor's Office, because Baños understands Spanish perfectly. The head of the Court, however, has remained firm in her decision, for which the former deputy of the CUP has renounced to intervene.

The lawyer Carles López has asked to record his protest considering that by denying the interpreter to Baños a violation of the fundamental rights of the accused has been committed.

Although Baños initially faced a six-month prison sentence for the crime of serious disobedience, this Thursday the Prosecutor's Office reduced his request to four months in prison.

The representative of the Public Ministry has insisted that the former deputy committed a crime of disobedience to authority for his "repeated refusal" to answer the questions of the parties that were part of the procés trial.

He has recalled that, as a witness, Baños had the obligation to answer and has rejected the possibility that the court would convey the questions of the popular accusation exercised by Vox. "The Presidency cannot act as an intermediary between the witness and one of the parties," he stressed.

This trial takes place one day after the CUP spokeswoman in the Catalan Chamber, Eulàlia Reguant, was tried for the same events but before the Supreme Court, for her status as a qualified deputy in the Parliament. In the indictment filed in April 2021, the Prosecutor's Office requested a six-month prison sentence for Baños.