The court annuls the intervention of Cellex and Mir Puig because the suspects were not given the opportunity to defend themselves.

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Court of Appeals has annulled the judicial intervention of the Cellex and Mir Puig scientific foundations ordered in April by the court investigating alleged irregularities in the management of the estate of chemist Pere Mir, founder of both entities, who upon his death in 2017 left three people in his will to manage his legacy. These are oncologist Josep Tabernero, the former president of the boards of trustees of both foundations, Jordi Segarra, and lawyer Juan Francisco Capellas.

The investigating judge is investigating them for alleged irregularities in the administration of Mir's estate, the damages of which would exceed 6 million euros, and has therefore removed them from the foundations, which have been administered by the Generalitat (Catalan government) since April. Now, however, the Barcelona Court concludes that this move was made without giving the defendants any time to defend themselves, and clarifies that if judicial intervention is raised again, their lawyers will have to have at least 10 days to study the procedure and prepare for the hearing.

In an order that has advanced The Vanguard In a ruling, which ARA has had access to, the ninth section of the Barcelona Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the defense of the three defendants and annulled the ruling of Barcelona's 12th Court of Instruction, which in April ordered the foundations to be intervened as a precautionary measure. The judges considered that the lawyers did not have sufficient time to prepare the defendants' statements or the hearing where the precautionary measures were discussed, which would have violated their right to defense. In fact, the case was kept secret until the very day the judge took the defendants' statements, and less than 24 hours later, the hearing for the precautionary measures was held. At that time, the case consisted of 1,942 pages and several digital media.

The period of time that must pass from the moment lawyers have access to the proceedings until the hearing is held in which they must respond to requests for precautionary measures is not regulated beyond requiring a "reasonable period" that allows lawyers to "examine the proceedings with due notice to safeguard the right of defense." In this specific case, the Barcelona Court considers that they would have needed at least 10 days.

The order now annulled by the Court not only ordered the Generalitat to act as judicial administrator of Cellex and Mir Puig. It also prohibited the defendants from disposing of certain real estate assets and ordered the seizure of jewelry they had in safe deposit boxes until their origin and ownership were clarified. Furthermore, the court has also annulled the appearances of the defendants that took place on April 10, the same day the confidentiality of the proceedings was lifted and just before their lawyers were granted access. In this way, the proceedings return to the point where they were before these actions.

When she ordered these precautionary measures, the judge had already gathered evidence to charge the three suspects with the alleged crimes of disloyal administration and misappropriation, related to the management of Pere Mir's assets linked to the Cellex and Mir Puig foundations. Among the irregularities detected by the investigating judge are self-granting loans on advantageous terms, donations of property and money to the suspects or third parties, and payment of personal fines with social funds. The investigation has also revealed transfers that were a priori unjustified and that high-value assets had been omitted from the estate inventory.

Cellex, dedicated to the healthcare sector, and Mir Puig, providing healthcare support to people in need of help to alleviate illnesses, are two foundations created by the chemical entrepreneur and scientific patron Pere Mir, who died in 2017. In 2023, the Generalitat (Catalan government) opened an investigation into whether Celex would be part of the foundation or not. Some estimates put Mir's legacy at €400 million, while others reduced the inheritance to €40 million.

The three main executors of Mir's will, the oncologist and head of the medical oncology service at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Josep Tabr—who is currently listed as the president of the boards of trustees of the Cellex and Mir Puig foundations—and the lawyer Juan Francisco Capellas, were investigated for these alleged administrative irregularities.

Violation of the right to defense

In the ruling of the Barcelona Court of Appeals, to which ARA had access, the ninth section of the court not only ordered the annulment of that resolution, but also the appearance of the suspects on April 10, due to a violation of the defendant's right to defense because they had not had time to prepare their statement. Thus, as has been advanced The Vanguard, The judges consider, as the defendants' lawyers had argued, that they did not have sufficient time to prepare the statement and the appearance in which the precautionary measures were assessed, because the case had been kept secret until the very day the defendants' statements were taken, and the precautionary measures hearing took place the following day. "In reality, there was formal access to the file within a truly short period of time, which essentially means there was no real time to analyze the documentation attached to the case and the electronic files, which meant a vacuum of the right of defense to the point that its exercise and the possibility of contradiction in the appearance for measures was merely formal, not real."