The Court of Auditors dismisses Puigdemont's immunity argument and refuses to suspend the procedure

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

MADRID, 16 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Court of Accounts (Tcu) has dismissed the argument of the defense of the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont that the leader enjoys immunity before the supervisory body, for which reason he has refused to suspend the procedure that is being followed against him for the alleged diversion of funds for the expenses of 1-O and the external action of Catalonia.

The counselor of the Second Department of the Court's Prosecution Section, Elena Hernáez Salguero, has made this statement at the preliminary hearing this Friday in which Puigdemont's defense has insisted on the leader's status as MEP and the immunity that this entails to request that the proceedings against him be halted.

The lawyer Gonzalo Boye has defended at the beginning of the hearing that "the continuation of the procedure without the request is a violation of immunity and that generates an annulment with respect to this procedure." "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 his turn to speak, the Prosecutor's Office has stressed that defending said inviolability "would be contrary to the right 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 (SCC), which is prosecuting the case, has also 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 counselor of the Court of Auditors, who has responded this Friday to several of the questions raised by the defenses, has assured that the approach to the question of parliamentary immunity raised by Puigdemont, from Comín and Ponsatí, must be "dismissed,

Within the framework of the hearing, the Prosecutor's Office has reduced the demand against thirty 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.

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.

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 councilors Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull, as well as 14 other people, from the list of possible accountants, a petition to which the court finally agreed.

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.

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 and when the Court of Auditors itself has already addressed the accounting responsibility of 9-N.

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 delegate has resolved several of these issues this Friday. She has assured that she does not appreciate that there is an undue extension of the lawsuit. "What SCC has done is explain the origin of the funds," she said.

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.

As the delegate has warned, some of the issues raised will be resolved in a car in the next five days.