The deputy director of 'El Mundo' does not clarify the role of the patriotic police in the Pujol case

MadridOne of the most anticipated witnesses of the week in the Pujol Ferrusola family trial was Esteban Urreiztieta, deputy director ofThe WorldThe newspaper that in July 2014 published the screenshot of the accounts held in Andorra by Marta Ferrusola—the wife of the former president of the Generalitat—and five of her children. He explained that he did not participate in the writing of the article, which was signed by the journalist Fernando Lázaro, who died in June of last year. After prosecutor Fernando Bermejo completely ignored the famous "screenshotThe question posed to him by state attorney José Ignacio Ocio directly asked if former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo or the "patriotic police"—without explicitly calling them that—were the source and origin of the news. Urreiztieta replied that he did not produce the information: "I know them, and even if I did, I couldn't provide any details," he stated. This is because journalists are protected by professional secrecy and have the right not to reveal their sources when testifying as witnesses in a legal proceeding. However, Esteban Urreiztieta boasted that the "veracity" of the Pujol story, published days later, is "absolutely unquestionable." He also said that after the publication, and within the framework of the judicial investigation, the UDEF—the central unit for economic and fiscal crime—did not ask them for any explanation regarding its content. Who could provide more details about the origin of the information? They will have to testify as witnesses in the coming months.

In the first days of the trialThe defense lawyers for the children of the former president of the Generalitat reported the newsThe World In the spotlight. The front page was key to advancing the investigation, which had begun with a complaint filed by Vicky Álvarez—the eldest son's former partner—in 2012 regarding alleged money the family was taking to Andorra. The case remained frozen until July 7, 2014, when the newspaper published the family's bank accounts. According to Josep Pujol's defense brief, this information surfaced after the "patriotic police" deployed a "coercive harassment operation" against the owners of Banca Privada de Andorra to obtain information about the Pujols. Francesc Sánchez, Oriol Pujol's lawyer, accused "pseudo-police" and "part of the state apparatus" of wanting to "influence" the independence process. And Jaime Campaner, Josep Pujol's lawyer, dubbed the front page a "banking striptease" and presented it as the "original sin" of the case.

Thursday's witnesses focused on bank accounts in Andorra and transfers in which Jordi Pujol Ferrusola was involved. One of those who testified, Xavier Plana Bassols, acknowledged that he had an account in Andorra and justified it by saying it was "almost a family tradition for forty years." For her part, Montserrat Esteve, who owns a jewelry store in Barcelona, ​​recounted that the eldest son paid her thirteen million pesetas in Andorra in 1993 for watches and jewelry he had bought from her and that he owed her.

An interview in Argentina

The questioning by prosecutor Fernando Bermejo and Cristóbal Martell – Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's lawyer – has focused on an interview Esteban Urreiztieta conducted with Gustavo Shanahan, the eldest son's business partner in Argentina and president of the Port of Rosario, in which Shanahan claimed that the eldest son of the Spanish express train driver from Rosario, Panama – an interview he later retracted in exchange for $135,000. Furthermore, The World He published an email he had provided in which Pujol Ferrusola stated that the money would arrive from Switzerland. However, Martell's questioning has revealed that the only evidence supporting Shanahan's claims about the twelve million is this email, which mentions one and a half million. There is "no supporting documentation" for the remaining operations or transactions with the other two countries.