Perhaps in connection with the Catalonia Operation, it might be appropriate to place the following advertisement: “Young judge wanted, believer in justice. Independent. Target: Catalonia Operation case, Spanish Watergate. Evidence of criminality on partisan use of police and intelligence.” “Services to discredit personalities, prosecutors and politicians. Obstacle: Walls in the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court and the National Court. Judge to appeal.”
The opinion of the House of Representatives in November 2017, was approved by a majority with the Popular Party voting against Citizens At the last minute, he attributed to the government of Mariano Rajoy the assembly of “political police” directed by the Ministry of the Interior of Jorge Fernández Díaz against his political rivals. The evidence examined by the parliamentary inquiry for four months was overwhelming.
In the judicial field, another series of indicators achieved practically no results.
In November 2016, the Admissions Chamber of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court decided not to accept the previously submitted complaint Xavier Trias, Mayor of Barcelona until 2015, against El Mundo journalists, former Minister Fernández Díaz and former Director of the Anti-Fraud Office Daniel de Alfonso, on charges of disclosure of secrets, fraud and misappropriation of public funds. The aforementioned newspaper had published in 2014, in the midst of the battle against independence, that Trias – the mayor at the time – was the owner of a bank account worth 12 million euros with the Swiss Banking Association in Ginebra, which is information that indicates that Trias and the same entity owned a bank account worth 12 million. EUR in the Swiss Banking Association in Ginebra. It was rejected as fake.
The then top prosecutor, Antolin Herrero, reported in September 2016 that audio recordings of conversations between Fernández Díaz and de Alfonso – conducted on October 2 and 16, 2014 at the Ministry of the Interior – to deal with maneuvers and illegal actions against pro-independence figures, including Trias, “does not have the characteristics of the crimes charged” with regard to Fernández Díaz, and that “the exchange of information can be protected under the articles establishing the Anti-Fraud Office and without limiting the public funding that supports the alleged accusations.” Embezzlement.”
The speaker was scheduled to be Judge José Manuel Maza, who has been appointed state prosecutor. He was replaced by Andres Martinez Arrieta, who indicated that the talks did not reveal any secrets, recalling the work of “information exchange” between the two internal bodies and the anti-fraud office.
“However, there is no data that allows us to confirm that as a result of this communication, the information went beyond the conversation between the two,” noted the interviewer who dismissed Trias’ complaint.
Does the given exist?
Existing Twelve days after the second meeting – also recorded – between Fernández Díaz and de Alfonso, one of the “stellar” pieces of information examined by the Ministry of the Interior was leaked to El Mundo.
But these small details did not impress the judges of the second chamber. It should be noted that the Admissions Chamber was composed of the President of the Second Chamber, Manuel Marchena, Andrés Martínez Arrieta (President), Miguel Colmenero, Andrés Palomo and Ana Ferrer.
The neutralization of false information by Trias and his lawyer Xavier Melero led to a real mobilization of the police domes. Both the Deputy Directorate for Operations and Internal Affairs and the Economic and Financial Crimes Unit (UDEF) tried to cover up the leak, protect their journalist friends, and prevent a serious investigation into the matter in regular courts. The head of the UDEF, Chief Commissioner Manuel Vázquez López, sent a letter to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to conduct an “investigation” in which he confirmed that the data was present in a French-language report.
The aforementioned document was later submitted, and translated, to Magistrate Court No. 16 in Madrid (see transcript).
There he presented a 31-page report issued by the UDEF-listed Central Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Corruption Investigation Brigade.
So, this is the report that became known on Monday, January 21st.
In February 2017, Deputy Director of Police Operations, Eugenio Pino, who retired in 2016, despite evidence that Trias's bank account had been falsified, defended the veracity of the information.
In response to a question from the same newspaper whether they were still in their position, Pino indicated:
– Yes, we are continuing to maintain it. Among other things, because the source has already given us good things. Moreover, we had a very fruitful dialogue with her and she is the source of all credibility. We received the information, UEFA was very cooperative and we went to Switzerland. They showed us the screenshots and let us shoot it. There are many police officers as witnesses. If the prosecutor's office later deems that this is not sufficient reason, well…
The journalists were acquitted in a Madrid court in the criminal trial.
As for the Catalonia operation, the last opportunity to investigate the facts in the National Court dates back to October 2022, when the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office asked Judge Manuel García Castellón to present the tandem piece in the lawsuit that investigated the interference of José Manuel Velarejo and the police in the records of the Metodo detective agency. 3, owned by Francisco Marco, from which reports on figures from the Catalan world were obtained in 2013.
However, the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office was not signed by the main prosecutor of the case, Miguel Serrano, who considered, according to judicial sources, that the company Método 3 (which recorded the meeting between the President and s de Catalunya, Alicia Sánchez Camacho, and María Victoria Álvarez, who later became a police confidant) was the only part of the Tandem case in which it was possible to investigate the facts of Operation Catalunya.
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