The instigator of the pressures on BPA regarding the Pujols was the architect of the leak of the 33 sovereignist judges

MadridThe National High Court has closed the circle of investigations into the role of the patriotic police in the genesis of the Pujol case. This Wednesday, the last two witnesses who were to shed light on this issue testified and, despite the contradictions that have existed so far, they have provided new information and have allowed to reinforce - in a way - the reconstruction. The most relevant was that Celestino Barroso, who was head of the Interior Ministry at the Spanish embassy in Andorra, revealed who instructed him to contact Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA). He first spoke with the owner of the entity, Higini Cierco, and then with the then CEO, Joan Pau Miquel, whom he urged to meet in Madrid with a certain Félix – who was Marcelino Martín Blas–, who demanded bank information from the families of Artur Mas, Oriol Junqueras, and Jordi Pujol. However, Celestino Barroso denied that they coerced them to obtain information from BPA:

Who is Pedro Esteban? He was the architect of the investigation that was leaked to the newspaper La Razón with the ID photos of the 33 judges from Catalonia who signed a manifesto in favor of the sovereignist consultation. The recording of a meeting in March 2014 in which Pedro Esteban participated, along with other top figures of the patriotic police, proved that the state's sewers were behind it: Pedro Esteban was worried about whether it would eventually become known that they had leaked the images, and Eugenio Pino – who was the deputy operational director of the Spanish police – reassured him by saying that the official secrets act could be invoked. A month ago, the Madrid High Court asked to reopen the case regarding the leak of ID photos, and in 2022 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Spain after concluding that the dissemination of the images violated the judges' right to privacy.

In addition to Barroso, Higini Cierco also testified this Wednesday, who has corroborated what Joan Pau Miquel explained yesterday and has discredited Celestino Barroso. When asked by the prosecutor, he justified why in 2014 they did not report the coercion and pressure from the patriotic police – they did so in 2016:

The "mossèn" Josep Maria PallerolaJosep Maria Pallerola, who was the Pujol family's first manager in Andorra, also testified. First of all, he recalled how the first contact with Jordi Pujol Ferrusola was made and supported the defense's thesis for the former president of the Generalitat's family, which places the origin of the fortune in the Pyrenean country in the legacy of his grandfather Florenci:

He also admitted that they nicknamed him "the mossèn". Prosecutor Fernando Bermejo presented the famous handwritten note that Marta Ferrusola – the wife of the former president of the Generalitat – sent to Banca Reig: