An Andorran judge reopens the investigation into Operation Catalunya.
The Spanish courts had dismissed the rogatory commission for formal reasons, but now it is being repeated.
BarcelonaLast year, the Spanish courts blocked the Andorran judicial investigation into Operation Catalunya by closing the letter rogatory. The World The case seeking the indictment of former Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and former Interior and Finance Ministers Jorge Fernández Díaz and Cristóbal Montoro has now been reactivated, according to information obtained by ARA. Judge Stéphanie Garcia has again issued letters rogatory in Spain to the competent judicial authority to summon the political and judicial leaders of the Andorran branch of this alleged anti-independence plot.
The Andorran judge of the second investigation section thus responds to the response of the Provincial Court of Madrid in a July 9 resolution, which agreed not to execute the international letter rogatory, arguing that it did not specify "a summary statement of the facts, much less an individualized description of the events." The Andorran court received this resolution on January 9 and has only now attempted to do so again. The crux of the conflict is that summoning the former Spanish high-ranking officials to testify has required a letter rogatory that has encountered a series of obstacles to justice in Spain, but now a new attempt is being made, amending what is convenient with a new order "to complement the international letter rogatory dated 5/22/2022, individually summoning the defendants in the same [sic].
Summons of witnesses
The judge also moved the case forward, summoning several witnesses to appear on November 4th: from former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to lawyer José María Fuster Fabra, as well as former Andorran Finance Minister Jordi Cinca and former Foreign Minister Gilbert Saboya. She also requested the current addresses of Fuster Fabra and Villarejo. In a third ruling, Judge García has asked another Andorran court to hear the case regarding the alleged crime of revealing secrets about former President Jordi Pujol and his family in the leak of tax data that was discovered in the newspaper. The World.