Oriol Pujol breaks his silence: "My father wants to go to trial"

BarcelonaOriol Pujol, son of the former president of the Generalitat, has broken his silence after eleven years and just a few weeks before the Trial of the family for organized crimeThe trial begins on November 24 at the National Court. "My father wants to go to the trial," he said in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. He admitted that the man who was head of government for 23 years has cognitive problems. as published The NewspaperHe has a "speech problem" and "has trouble remembering the names of his children or grandchildren." But he made it clear that "he is not a useless man or someone who needs to be disqualified," and clarified that his goal is to be able to participate in the trial remotely, without having to travel to Madrid.

On November 24, the National Court will begin trying the Pujol family for organized crime, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery. A decade after the former president confessed about his money abroad—and after twelve years of judicial investigation—the prosecution is seeking up to 9 years in prison for him and 29 years for his eldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola. For Oriol Pujol, the prosecution is requesting 8 years in prison. "I'm very calm, there won't be any prison time. I dare say it will go well, it can only go well because the evidence is very weak and the irregularities committed are appalling," he stated in the interview this Thursday.

If he granted this interview, it was, in his opinion, to react to the news reports about his father's health shortly before the trial. Former president Pujol, 95, He has asked the National Court to assess his state of health. to decide whether to allow him to go to trial; that is, whether he is capable of handling the role of defense counsel. If so, he requests not to have to attend the trial in person and to be able to follow it—and also participate—remotely. The defense has submitted three medical reports to the court regarding his state of health. "My father clearly has physical problems; his body can't take much," said Oriol Pujol, who emphasized that attending the trial in person would mean traveling to Madrid more than 40 times in six months. "It could be quite deadly."

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The son of the former president, who was secretary general and a member of parliament for CiU, had not spoken publicly for eleven years. At the end of 2018 He accepted a two-year and three-month prison sentence. for influence peddling, bribery, and document forgery in the vehicle inspection case. He entered Brians 2 prison on January 17, 2019, but two months later was granted semi-liberty, meaning he only has to sleep at home. "It's an experience I neither wish nor recommend to anyone," he said, adding that the worst part was the ordeal he had to endure beforehand and the fact that, in his opinion, he didn't receive "a fair trial." Unlike that blow, Pujol has expressed his conviction that his family's trial will end in acquittal.