The Court of Madrid agrees with Fernández Díaz and paralyzes Andorra's request for Operation Catalonia

It corrects itself, as it did after the complaints from Rajoy and Montoro, and annuls the previous decision in which it endorsed the Principality's request

MADRID, 23 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Provincial Court of Madrid has agreed with the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz and has notified the Investigating Court Number 32 that it must admit the appeal in which it requested the suspension of the rogatory commission of Andorra regarding the complaint of the 'Operation Catalonia' in which he appears as investigated, correcting himself and annulling the previous decision in which he dismissed the former president's request.

In two orders dated November 18, to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates of the Second Section have upheld Fernández Díaz's complaint appeal and have ordered that he be considered as a person in the rogatory commission of the Principality that is processing the Madrid court.

In addition, they have considered it pertinent that said court admit the appeal for reform that Fernández Díaz's lawyer, Jesús Mandri, had presented, in which he requested the non-processing of the rogatory letter.

It should be remembered that the Provincial Court of Madrid has given the reason in the same sense to the former president of the Government Mariano Rajoy and his former Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro, all of them investigated for what is known as 'Operation Catalonia'.

The same Section had previously ruled in the opposite direction -in all three cases- considering that the claim of the three ex-leaders had lost grounds by starting from the factual assumption that the letter rogatory had already been returned to Andorra, something that when it was signed the previous resolution --on October 5-- had not been carried out.

On that occasion, the magistrates explained that, although they believed that the court should have admitted the writings of all of them, they could not estimate their resources because they believed that the judge had already sent the response to the Principality. Now, the Court of Madrid - in defense of the effective judicial protection - has declared the annulment of its first order.

As they have explained, they now know that at least on October 20 the rogatory letter was still in the premises of the Ministry of Justice, "since the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TSJM suspended the agreed return." Of course, they have assured that they do not know where he is now.

"Therefore, we are unaware of the current situation of the letters rogatory in its long and, apparently, stormy journey between the Investigating Court of Madrid and the Court of Andorra, via the Ministry of Justice, while in the era of society of information had not reached its destination in the three months since it was returned," they specified.

However, they have considered that Fernández Díaz was right and that what is pertinent is that the Madrid court in which the rogatory letter is processed admits the appeal presented by the former minister to request his appearance in the procedure.

The Justice of the Principality investigates Rajoy, Fernández Díaz and Montoro for alleged crimes of coercion, threats, blackmail, extortion, coercion of constitutional bodies and creation of a false document for their alleged relationship with attempts to find out bank information "through illegal means" secret of the former presidents of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas, as well as the former vice president Oriol Junqueras.

Specifically, the facts denounced in the complaints are related to alleged extortion, coercion and blackmail since 2014 by agents of the National Police against those responsible for Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) to obtain bank information "through illegal means". secret protected by Andorran legislation" of various rulers of Catalonia and their relatives, including Pujol, Mas and Junqueras.

The defenses of Rajoy, Fernández Díaz and Montoro alleged that their rights were violated because the Madrid Examining Court 32, when processing the aforementioned rogatory, did not carry out the "prior control of legality in accordance with national and conventional legislation in matters of international cooperation.