Catalan police officers who accompanied former president in Germany appear before National Court

MadridThe first trial arising from the exile of pro-independence leaders has begun on Tuesday at the National Court after several postponements due to a relative of the accused becoming ill. The two Catalan police officers - known as Mossos d'Esquadra - who accompanied former president Carles Puigdemont when he returned to Belgium on March 25, 2018 following the reactivation of the European and international arrest warrants face a request for three years in prison from the Prosecutor's Office, which accuses them of the crime of concealment. Xavier Goicoechea and Carlos de Pedro were traveling with Puigdemont, along with Junts senator Josep Maria Matamala and historian Josep Lluís Alay. The German police arrested the former president and let the other four occupants of the vehicle go and it was not until they returned to Catalonia, three days later, that the Spanish National Police acted against them.

Throughout the instruction, the defence has been based on pointing out that this arrest in Spanish soil was illegal, which is why it has requested the annulment of the proceedings. The National Court dismissed the case against Matamala and Alay, but pushed charges against the two policemen given their status as civil servants. The trial has started with the procedure of preliminary questions - although the judge already wanted to skip them and it has been defence lawyer Cristóbal Limón who had to insist on them - and the alleged irregularities will be exposed: the main one, that they were arrested without the Prosecutor's Office having first issued a warrant. The defendants argue that this is illegal, while the court has argued that the open investigation can be used as a warrant.

The facts must be a crime abroad

The main argument of the defence is that for the two officers to be judged in Spain for acts committed abroad, these have to be a crime also in the place where they took place. Here the main contradiction starts: the National Court will hear the two Mossos' case while it was not considered to be a crime either in Germany, Sweden or Denmark, where they travelled with Carles Puigdemont with the euroorder in force. "There is nothing about this", lawyer Cristóbal Limón stated.

In fact, Limón has presented as last-minute evidence statements from prosecutors' offices from the three countries on whether they consider that the case would have to be judged in their country. In the case of Sweden they do not respond; in that of Denmark they assert that after the facts had been asserted, they would not have pushed charges; and in the third case, that of Germany, they refer to the ruling that was already made at the time after Puigdemont's arrest, in which no proceedings were opened against the officers. "It is not a question of whether the legislations of the two countries include the crime of concealment, but that the facts that they are accused of are typified in their territories, which is not the case," Limón added.

Both De Pedro and Goicoechea have already advanced that they will not answer the prosecution's questions and will only respond to their lawyer. The trial will continue in the coming days with the statement of police witnesses. The defence has finally given up the witness of both Matamala and Alay.