AMP. Puigdemont will appear as a witness before the Court of Accounts for the expenses of 1-O and the external action

The former Catalan president is sued, but he will appear as a witness at the request of another of the defenses, he cannot do so at the request of his

MADRID, 16 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, will appear as a witness before the Court of Auditors in the trial for the procedure that is followed against thirty ex-charges of the Government -including himself- for the alleged diversion of funds for the expenses of the 1-O and foreign action framed in the 'procés'. The form in which he will testify has not been specified.

In the preliminary hearing held this Friday, the counselor of the Second Department of the Prosecution Section of the Court of Accounts, Elena Hernáez Salguero, agreed to Puigdemont's testimony, although not at the request of the leader's defense -- led by Gonzalo Boye --, but from another of the parties as evidence for the trial.

Sources from the supervisory body have specified to Europa Press that the court regulations do not allow the counselor to have a lawyer call her client to testify. In this case, as another of the parties has requested the appearance of Puigdemont, the counselor has accepted that he testify. Thus, the former Catalan president will testify as a witness and not as a defendant.

For her part, the counselor has rejected the request that the former Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro appear at the trial. Puigdemont's lawyer has requested his summons since he "certified the correctness of the public accounts." The counselor has said that "it is not pertinent or necessary."

On the sidelines, it has ruled on other test requests. He has agreed to ask the Generalitat of Catalonia if a series of invoices were paid to prove the "absence of damage" alleged by the defenses.

Within the framework of the hearing, the counselor has dismissed the argument of Puigdemont's defense that the procedure should be suspended due to his immunity as a MEP. "We are not in a disciplinary procedure, we are not raising any impossibility of mobility or any type of sanction in which parliamentary immunity moves, but simply a restitution, in case of noticing that there is an impairment in public funds. Nothing more and nothing less," he said.

Puigdemont's lawyer has defended at the beginning of the hearing that "continuing the procedure without the request is a violation of immunity and that generates an annulment with respect to this procedure."

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," she said.

In his turn to speak, the Prosecutor's Office 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".

The defense has shown its opposition to the decision of the counselor of the Court of Auditors and has filed an appeal. "The only body with sufficient capacity to determine the immunity of my clients is the European Parliament," Boye said. The counselor, however, has maintained her position and has dismissed the appeal.

On the sidelines, this Friday the Prosecutor's Office has reduced by 336,143.34 euros the demand against the thirty ex-charges of the Generalitat of Catalonia -including Puigdemont and the former vice president Oriol Junqueras-- in which he claimed 3.4 million euros jointly and solidarity in concept of accounting responsibility for the alleged diversion of funds for the expenses of 1-O and the foreign action of the 'procés'.

The reduction 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, has adhered to the movement of the Prosecutor's Office and has lowered its demand by said amount, so it would remain at 5 million euros.

Following this 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 only the irregularity related to the 'Civisme' campaign was attributed to the that the Prosecutor's Office and SCC have resigned.

Specifically, the Public Prosecutor's Office has modified the lawsuit that it filed 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 demand, the Prosecutor's Office lowered the estimates of the supervisory body on the allegedly diverted 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, SCC filed a lawsuit against 11 former senior government officials, including 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.

It should be remembered that, 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 the expenses related to 1-O at 4.1 million. As both actions have been merged into a single procedure, the total amount reached 9.5 million.

In the previous hearing this Friday, the parties have raised the "procedural exceptions" that they have deemed appropriate. The accusations have lowered their demand and 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 and the immunity of three of the defendants who are MEPs.

They have also alleged the lack of legitimacy of the Catalan Civil Society as a plaintiff and the incompatibility of the Court of Auditors following a procedure when the Supreme Court has already judged several of the defendants and when the Court of Auditors itself has already addressed the accounting responsibility of some sued by 9-N.

For its part, Junqueras's defense – led by lawyer Marc Marsal Ferret – has shown its opposition to 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 delegate has resolved several of these issues this Friday. She has assured that she does not appreciate that there is an undue expansion of the claim of the Catalan Civil Society. "What SCC has done is explain the origin of the funds," she pointed out.

In addition, it has dismissed the argument that the Court of Accounts lacks jurisdiction to carry out the procedure against the defendants. As he has said, the jurisdiction of the supervisory body "cannot be discussed" because it is a matter of accounting responsibility. Some of the issues raised will be resolved in a car in the next five days.