Luis B. García 05/06/2020 14:05 | Updated 05/06/2020 14:29
The regional minister of Foreign Affairs and Transparency, Bernat Solé, in the Parliament .. (Parlament / ACN)
The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has decided to open an oral trial against the current Catalan Foreign Minister, Institutional Relations and Transparency, the Republican Bernat Solé i Barril, for an alleged crime of disobedience when he held the position of mayor of the Agramunt locality.
This has been decided by the civil and criminal chamber of the Catalan high court, which had this case pending on the MCP for facilitating the 1-O voting in his municipality by giving up public premises and hiding the ballot boxes.
Solé had this case pending for facilitating 1-O in his municipality, Agramunt, when he was mayor
The investigating magistrate, Mercedes Armas, maintains that Solé made two municipally-owned educational centers available to the Generalitat for the referendum, repeatedly hid the ballot boxes from 1-O to prevent them from being intercepted by the police, and even proposed to the members of the polling stations just to end the voting an hour earlier than agreed.
In the judicial decree known this Friday, two facts are propped up to judge him for disobedience. The first, an act in the town hall of the municipality where he was mayor, “in favor of promoting the celebration and participation in the referendum whose suspension had been agreed by the TC since September 7” it recalls. In that act, the judicial decree reproduces his statements, in which he encouraged the participation assuring that “we have more reasons to go to vote, because on October 1 we will not only decide an option, but we will defend that universal right, that right that has been as difficult for us to obtain as is the right to vote ”.
The now regional minister “intervened” at the Macià Companys Public School, “handed over by the accused to hold the referendum, where he made decisions, such as hiding the ballot boxes for fear that they would be discovered”
And the second act was the same 1-O voting, when the now regional minister “intervened” at the Macià Companys Public School, “handed over by the accused for the holding of the referendum, where he made decisions, such as hiding the ballot boxes for fear that they would be discovered by the agents of the authority, hiding them and replacing them on several occasions, finally proposing to the members of the polling station and organizers of the referendum that the vote should end an hour earlier than expected. ”
Despite the opening of the trial, the TSJC does not impose any precautionary measure on the regional minister since the Prosecutor’s Office has not requested it. In her decree, the magistrate limits herself to indicating that “the Prosecutor’s Office has not been interested in any kind of measure, personal or patrimonial, as well as ex-delicto civil liability, so there is no need to provide anything in this regard”. The court gives 10 days to present allegations or the evidence he deems appropriate.
Miquel Buch and the Puigdemont escort summoned on June 16 and 18
Along with this decision, the TSJC has also reported on the summons to testify of the regional minister of the Interior, Miquel Buch and the escort from Puigdemont in Belgium, the Mossos sergeant Lluís Escolà, who was signed by the former for a few months as an adviser to security for the department. Buch is summoned to testify on June 16 at 10 in the morning, and Escolà on June 18 at the same time.
Both are accused of an alleged crime of prevarication and embezzlement of public funds as a result of the complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office after receiving a complaint from Ciutadans in relation to the escort service and protection to the former President of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont outside of Spain.
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