A Madrid court has opened the first case for allegedly criminal practices against Sandro Rosell
Among the alleged services to the homeland that ex-commissioner José Manuel Villarejo boasts of whenever he has the opportunity is the so-called Catalonia operation, which includes any investigation in which they were affected or affected catalan politicians. Until now, that the Court of Instruction number 13 of Madrid has admitted for processing a complaint by the former president of Barça Sandro Rosell, Based on information from EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, there was no legal proceeding in Spain for the activity of the PP police sewers in relation to Catalonia. These are the keys to the framework:
What is Operation Catalonia?
The main defendant in the Tándem case, in which police sewers are being investigated, ex-commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo, has declared itself responsible for what it calls ‘Project Barna’ or Operation Catalonia, a parapolice investigation without judicial control aimed at removing dirty laundry from the Catalan pro-independence leaders. In it, they are framed, depending on the different interests, from information about alleged accounts in Switzerland, such as that of the former mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias, that later it was verified that it did not exist, to the supposed pressures on the part of the former president of the Government Mariano Rajoy and its Ministers of Finance and Interior, Cristóbal Montoro and Jorge Fernández Díaz, to Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) to allegedly obtain information on Catalan policies, such as the Pujols.
Why haven’t more cases been prosecuted?
The position of the Prosecutor’s Office has always consisted of understanding that there was no reason to open any judicial investigation into Operation Catalonia as it is, because no judicial investigation was opened from allegedly corrupt or suspected corrupt police practices; those that were opened met the requirements that police investigations are supposed to meet.
The Central Court of Instruction number 6 ended up filing the one closest to her: the one related to the searches made at the offices of the detective agency Método 3. It also rejected the appearance of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol, who wanted him to be considered a victim of Villarejo’s practices, since the case against him, to which his surname gives its name and in which his entire family has ended up accused, originated with the complaint of his ex-partner Victoria Alvarezinstigated by the former police officer, about the transfer of cash to Andorra.
What is being investigated in Andorra?
An Andorran judge admitted for processing in 2020 a complaint against the former president of the government Mariano Rajoy and his ministers Jorge Fernández Díaz (Interior) and Cristóbal Montoro (Treasury) for alleged pressure on Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) to obtain information from Catalan politicians. The complaint, presented by the Institut de Drets Humans d’Andorra, expanded a previous one from 2016 by the former president of BPA, Higini Cierco, against former Secretary of State for the Interior Francisco Martinez, andthe former director of the Police Ignacio Cosidó, and other police officers who allegedly pressured those responsible for the entity that ended up being intervened for alleged links to money laundering practices, to obtain financial information on Catalan citizens.
What does Sandro Rosell denounce?
The complaint of the former president of Barça, admitted for processing by the Court of Instruction number 13 of Madrid, for the crimes of criminal organization, false complaint, illegal detention and false official document by a public official is directed against the alleged members of the ‘police sewer’ of the PP and against a former member of the FBI in Spain, who carried out the so-called “Operation Catalonia”, in which allegedly hatched a plan to launch an investigation against you. However, the magistrate does not rule on the existence or not of the plan to persecute Catalan politicians, but focuses the case that is now rolling on the specific complaint by Sandro Rosell of the practices to which he attributes having been almost two years in prison