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The Prosecutor's Office reduces the lawsuit against the ex-charges of the Government by 336,143.34 euros in which it claimed 3.4 million

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

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The Prosecutor's Office reduces the lawsuit against the ex-charges of the Government by 336,143.34 euros in which it claimed 3.4 million

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

MADRID, 16 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Prosecutor's Office has reduced the lawsuit against 34 ex-charges of the Generalitat of Catalonia by 336,143.34 euros -including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and former vice president Oriol Junqueras- in which he claimed 3.4 million euros jointly and severally concept of accounting responsibility for the alleged diversion of funds for the expenses of 1-O and the external action of the 'procés'.

The reduction of 336,143.34 euros responds to the fact that the Public Ministry has given up claiming the amount corresponding to an alleged irregularity in the Civisme campaign. Sociedad Civil Catalana (SCC), which also exercises the accusation in this procedure, has joined the movement of the Public Ministry and has also lowered its demand by said amount, so that it would remain just under 5 million euros.

This is how both accusations have been pronounced in the previous 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'.

After said change, Jaume Mestre, who was responsible for dissemination of the Generalitat, has been removed from the procedure since partial dismissal has been declared for him because he was only attributed the irregularity related to the Civisme campaign to which they have resigned the Prosecutor's Office and SCC.

In this sense, the Public Ministry modifies the lawsuit that it presented last April 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 request to which the court finally granted.

In its initial demand, the Prosecutor's Office lowered the estimates of the supervisory body on the allegedly deviated figure. Specifically, it went from the 9.5 million calculated by the Court of Auditors 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. Now, after the reduction announced this Friday, the amount claimed would be 3.1 million.

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 as accounting liability, a figure that has now been reduced after reducing his claim by 336,143.34 euros.

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.

Within the framework of the preliminary hearing, the defense of the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont has insisted that the status of MEP of the leader and the immunity that this entails to ask the Court of Auditors to paralyze the procedure that is followed in his against.

"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 request from the European Parliament, the Court of Auditors also must do it.

In this sense, Boye has stressed that the same would apply to former ministers Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, who also hold seats in the European Parliament. "This procedure should not continue, at least with regard to the three of them," she said.

The Prosecutor's Office, however, has stressed that defending said inviolability "would be contrary to the very law of the European Union, which establishes that immunity is not a personal privilege of the deputy but a guarantee of independence of Parliament as a whole".

Sociedad Civil Catalana, which is prosecuting the case, has asked the court not to take Puigdemont's request into account, because, as it has said, the leader "does not enjoy immunity" by not proving his status as an MEP. THE ALLEGATIONS OF THE DEFENSES

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.

Specifically, the defenses have raised a series of questions to ask the court not to continue with the procedure. They have alleged, among others, the lack of jurisdiction of the supervisory body, the nullity of the case in previous phases, the immunity of three of the defendants who are MEPs, the lack of legitimacy of the Catalan Civil Society as plaintiff and the incompatibility that the Court of Auditors follow a procedure when the Supreme Court has already judged several of the defendants.

For its part, the defense of the former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras - led by lawyer Marc Marsal Ferret - has shown its opposition to the SCC's claim, considering that it has made an "extension" of its initial brief. Thus, he has influenced that the accusation at first claimed the accounting responsibility related to the referendum of October 1, 2017 and finally also included that related to the expenses for the foreign action of the Generalitat.

The judge of the Court of Accounts has responded this Friday to this question and has assured that she does not appreciate that there is an undue extension of the demand. "What SCC has done is explain the origin of the funds," she pointed out.

On the matter of the incompatibility that the defenses have alleged, the prosecutor has defended that the criminal action of the Supreme Court and the accounting action of the Court of Accounts that has been carried out against several of the defendants in this procedure are "compatible", in reference --among others-- to Junqueras. The judge has not entered into this matter.