The National Court decides to try Jordi Pujol despite unfavorable reports on his health

San Fernando de Henares (Madrid)"The court has decided that the trial will begin with him present." Despite unfavorable forensic reports advising against it, the National Court has refused to exonerate Jordi Pujol i Soley and has decided to proceed with his trial. His seven children, the eldest son's ex-wife, and ten businesspeople are also in the dock in a trial that comes four years after the investigation concluded and which must determine whether the Pujol family's fortune in Andorra originated with their grandfather, Florenci, or was augmented with money from illegal commissions. The prosecution accuses the former president of the Generalitat of the crimes of illicit association and money laundering and is seeking a nine-year prison sentence.

The court has made this decision, even though the forensic doctors who examined him concluded thatIt is not in condition "physical or cognitive" to appear in court and that he lacks the "necessary procedural capacity" to "adequately defend himself." Earlier this morning, these same forensic experts appeared remotely and ratified their findings, as did another professional from the same National Court. The former president, who participated from home, stated, "I am at your disposal to answer to the best of my ability, but I am not in very good shape," according to legal sources speaking to ARA. in an interview This journal states that "one of the characteristics of advanced cognitive disorders is anosognosia, which is the inability to assess the extent of your deficits and the degree of your difficulties."

Communicating the decision

After a brief recess for deliberation, the presiding judge, José Ricardo de Prada, announced the decision and noted that if there are "any changes" in his health, the court will make the appropriate decision when the time comes. And in the future, when he has to testify in the spring, "it will be determined whether he is fit to do so." The deliberation, although held behind closed doors, could be heard via live stream on YouTube due to a technical error.

For the time being, the former president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) from 1980 to 2003 will follow the trial sessions—there will be three more this week—from his home in Barcelona, ​​where he is recovering from the pneumonia that caused his hospitalization. admitted six days at the Sagrada Familia Clinic in Barcelona.

His doctor appealed to the "principle of humanity"

The decision of the National Court not only contradicts the forensic reports prepared by the two doctors from the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Catalonia, but also contradicts the request made by the former president's doctor in ainterview on the ARAJaume Padrós argued that the former president of the Generalitat suffers from a "severe moderate cognitive impairment" and asserted that "he is not in a condition to defend himself or engage in dialectical argument." "He has difficulty maintaining a pleasant conversation, in terms of orientation, repetition, comprehension, and distraction," the doctor alleged, expressing his bewilderment at the court's decision to summon him remotely. "Justice must be blind, but not inhumane," he insisted. He avoided considering a scenario in which the National Court disregarded the reports: "I don't even want to think about it. I want to believe there is a principle of humanity." "He never strayed from his upright and dignified conduct."

When the investigation concluded, Judge José de la Mata determined that the Pujol family exploited their "privileged position of influence" in "Catalan political, social, and economic life" to "accumulate an exorbitant fortune" that was "directly linked" to "corrupt activities" and devised a "preconceived plan" to conceal it. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office maintains that Jordi Pujol wove a "network of patronage" in which he and "affiliated businessmen" within the Convergència party "divided up" the "excellent profits" from public tenders. In contrast, Jordi Pujol's defense frames the money the family held in Andorra as part of a deposit left by the former president's father, Florenci Pujol, to "cushion future financial hardships" due to the "political risk" his son assumed. In his confession, Pujol admitted that until the summer of 2014 he "never" found the "right moment" to regularize the money. In the defense brief, lawyer Cristóbal Martell argued that the fund has "no relation whatsoever" to "the high public office" he held and emphasized that he "never deviated from its proper and dignified exercise." "There is not a single item of income in his children's assets that has a causal relationship with an abusive and illegitimate exercise of his authority," he asserted. In court, Martell himself reaffirmed that there are no grounds to attribute criminal responsibility to the Pujol family. Among other things, he pointed to the "lack of specificity" and "vagueness" of the prosecution's indictment: "That makes a defense impossible."