An Andorran judge studied on May 20 to Spain a rogatory commission (system by which judicial assistance is requested from another country) to communicate the admission for processing in 2020 of a lawsuit against the former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and two of his ministers, Christopher Montoro Y Jorge Fernández Díaz, among other people, for different crimes for alleged pressure on the BPA to collect information from different people, including, Jordi Pujol, Arthur More Y Oriol Junqueras. Judge Sthéfanie Garcia gives them 15 days to appear in person at the proceedings, through the Andorran lawyer they designate or the court-appointed lawyer assigned to them. We collect the keys to the case.
Who presents it?
The initial complaint was filed in 2016 by the Cierco brothers, majority shareholders of the Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) against Spanish police officers who allegedly pressured them to obtain financial information on Catalan citizens. The complaint has undergone various extensions, the latest being the one filed in 2019 by the Institute of Human Rights d’Andorra (IDHA) against Rajoy and his ministers, after listening to former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo – the main defendant in the case in which investigate the police sewers – declare as a witness that he participated in these practices, but that the closure of the bank could only be done by his superiors.
Despite being one of the presumed victims of this alleged pressure, the Pujols have not requested to appear in person in the procedure, unlike in the National Court, where they tried unsuccessfully to bring charges against Villarejo in the Tándem case. From the environment of the former president’s family, it is pointed out that the procedure followed in Andorra may be a way used by those who were responsible for the intervened bank to avoid facing their responsibilities.
Is such a slow process normal?
From lDHA it is justified to this newspaper that the rogatory commission sent to Spain to communicate the presentation of the complaint has taken two years in the collapse suffered by the justice of the principality due to the hundreds of procedures that drag since the intervention in 2015 of BPA and its subsidiary in Madrid, Banco de Madrid, with the claims filed against them by those who held funds, with the aim of recovering their money.
During these years, practically only Villarejo’s statement has been taken, although the plaintiffs have been delivering documentation to the Andorran Court of Specialized Investigation number 2, as it was produced in Spain, such as the answers given by the defendants in the Congressional commission of the Operation Kitchen, like that of former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz denying knowing what the BPA is, when a deputy asked him about the lawsuit filed against him.
Are they crimes prosecuted in Spain?
The complaint admitted for processing refers to alleged extortion, coercion and blackmail carried out since 2014 by Spanish police officers against those responsible for BPA to obtain secret banking information. The specific crimes cited in the rogatory commission are those of coercion, threats of an evil constituting a crime, blackmail, extortion coercion to constitutional bodies and false document. All of them are crimes existing in the Spanish jurisdiction, although to process a rogatory commission that would not be essential. The problem is that these are crimes that are difficult to prove in the framework of a request for information from the bank to investigate a crime. In this sense, tax sources have highlighted to this newspaper the good collaboration of the Andorran authorities with Anticorruption.
Does the defense already have it?
The defense lawyers consulted by this newspaper did not yet have the rogatory commission, although it is normal, because the Andorran judge has transferred it to her justice authorities and they, to those of foreign affairs, so that they can send it to Spain following the same route. : Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and courts of instruction of the place where the defendants have their domicile to send them the document, which delays the notification.
Is the defendant the same as accused?
It is used in an equivalent way, because it is in this condition that a defendant’s statement is taken, even if he has been summoned only to make a minimal inquiry about the plausibility of the reported facts to precede the filing of the proceedings.
However, it is not usually considered an accused person until he is summoned before the judge, which has not yet happened with the former President of the Government and it remains to be seen if he will appear in the open proceedings in Andorra. The principality is not a member of the European Union, so it cannot force their delivery through a Euroorder, as is the case with those claimed by Spain, although it could order their arrest. The Andorran claim of people is carried out through bilateral collaboration agreements signed between the principality and the rest of the countries.
Defendants
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In addition to Rajoy and his ministers Jorge Fernández Díaz and Cristóbal Montoro, who has been included due to the visit he made in 2015 to the principality with the then Prime Minister, the defendants who are now being notified are: the former Secretary of State of Security Francisco Martínez, the former Director General of the Police Ignacio Cosidó, the former Deputy Director of Operations Eugenio Pino and Inspector Bonifacio Díez Sevillano.
Andorran authorities
Upon hearing of his inclusion in the lawsuit, Martínez sent a letter to the Ciercos, which ‘El Mundo’ advanced, in which he highlighted the speed with which the US authorities had intervened in the BPA for a money laundering crime. of capitals. He justified it with “a strong political will to carry them out“But he held the Andorran authorities responsible for it, who wanted to show their willingness to collaborate with the Americans. Hence, he was surprised that the accusation was extended to him, Rajoy and the Spanish ministers.