The Court of Auditors holds the preliminary hearing tomorrow on the expenses of 1-O and foreign action

The parties may raise issues such as possible prescription and propose evidence before advancing to trial

MADRID, 15 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Court of Accounts (TCu) holds tomorrow the preliminary hearing 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 followed against the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, his former vice president Oriol Junqueras and other former government officials, who are being claimed 3.4 million euros --jointly and severally-- as accounting liability.

The preliminary hearing will serve so that the parties can raise the "procedural exceptions" that they deem appropriate, such as the eventual prescription of accounting liability, and so that they can propose the evidence that they consider necessary to carry out during the trial.

The sources of the TCu consulted by Europa Press explain that, if the accusations and defenses do not propose any evidence, the case could be seen for sentencing in the previous hearing.

However, the same sources indicate that, most likely, the parties are interested in taking evidence -for example, that the defendants or witnesses testify- and progress towards the trial.

With this preliminary hearing, the procedure for the accounting responsibility of the 'procés' enters 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.

As he explained, the accounting responsibility of some of those present in the procedure decreased "considerably with respect to the amount claimed by the instructor" from the Court of Auditors and with respect to the claim by Catalan Civil Society because "the defendants and the amounts are divergent." .

The Prosecutor's Office specified that the part of the lawsuit dedicated to the expenses of 1-O "complies with the task carried out by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court" by condemning Junqueras and former directors Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa and Jordi Turull for embezzlement. He also included three "rebels" in his lawsuit: Puigdemont and former directors Toni Comín and Lluís Puig.

With respect to the part of the claim relating to the expenses of foreign action, the Public Prosecutor's Office included both the trips made by the former president and the former directors as well as the expenses incurred by the different delegations of the Generalitat abroad and the various activities of the 'Diplocat', both those destined to promote the sovereignist process and another series of expenses.

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.

Within the framework of the case, Puigdemont filed an appeal against the figure claimed by the Court of Auditors, considering that he had "recognized immunity as a member of the European Parliament" that reached "any instance and jurisdiction", including the supervisory body. However, the former president's arguments were dismissed.

Subsequently, the debate turned on the bonds that the defendants had to provide to the Court of Accounts for the trial. When the supervisory body claimed the 5.4 million euros, several of the defenses considered it appropriate to present public guarantees from the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) to avoid the seizure of assets.

Initially, the TCu did not accept this modality. The investigating delegate explained that, "in accordance with the coherence of the public agent's indemnity system", and the interpretation of the Civil Code, "the guarantee by means of a guarantee guaranteed with public funds for fraudulent conduct or marked by acts carried out with negligence or gross negligence cannot be legally protected. Finally, the Court of Justice of the TCu corrected and allowed the public guarantees to be presented.

After admitting them, the Court of Accounts agreed to return to Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) the 2.1 million euros that it deposited as a guarantee of the alleged accounting responsibility of the former high-ranking government officials indicted.