The prosecutor in the Pujol case catches Vicky Álvarez's bug and denies the influence of Operation Catalonia

San Fernando de HenaresThe "patriotic police" have once again reared their ugly heads in the Pujol Ferrusola family trial. While on Monday and Tuesday the defense lawyers denounced the "contamination" of Operation Catalonia at the very beginning of the case and the "original sin" of the investigation, the prosecution and the State Attorney's Office sought to draw a line between the state's dirty tricks and the trial that began Monday at the National Court. "No evidence has been manipulated for any ulterior motive, and all evidence has been obtained with full respect for the rights of the accused," asserted prosecutor Fernando Bermejo. He reprimanded the lawyers for stirring up "political rumors" and "unsubstantiated hypotheses" and for attempting to get the court to consider "alleged maneuvers and irregularities unrelated to the facts being judged." "Political issues cannot be introduced into a procedural, legal, and substantive matter such as the investigation and prosecution of crimes," he concluded.

At the end of his argument, he referred to a passage from the Supreme Court's ruling in the trial to argue that it is a "mistake" to base one's case on a "contextualizing assumption that would explain everything" and lamented that the appeal to the patriotic police "clouds the analysis" of the repressive measures called upon to subjugate a people. The impact of Operation Catalonia on the Pujol case is an issue that will become clearer in the coming weeks, when witnesses begin to testify, because the court refused to summon some of the leaders of the patriotic police, such as José Manuel Villarejo—a retired commissioner of the Spanish police—and Eugenio Pino—former deputy director of operations for the police.

"Nobody forced her"

Fernando Bermejo also argued that the complaint filed by Vicky Álvarez – Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's ex-partner – in 2012 – despite the prosecutor's claim that it was filed in 2010 – provided "sufficient and concrete evidence" and, therefore, "clearly legitimized" the initiation of the proceedings. Furthermore, in response to the defense's complaints, he challenged them to prove that she was coerced: "Truly, no one forced her. If they disagree, let them prove it here in court."

Now, according to the defense, she was encouraged to speak after receiving a call from Villarejo, posing as a journalist, threatening to publish photos of her if she didn't testify, and was further incentivized by a text message from Jorge Moragas, Mariano Rajoy's chief of staff, asking her to... In addition, Vicky Álvarez received payments from classified funds. On Monday, Oriol Pujol's lawyer, Francesc Sánchez, stressed that it was "evident" that her testimony was not "subject to her free will" and emphasized that, in this case, Operation Catalonia is not "futile."

The famous cover ofThe World

In this context, prosecutor Fernando Bermejo has argued that the investigation "had begun" beforeThe WorldThe publication of the famous front page with the screenshot of the Pujol family's accounts in Andorra has been cited. And it has been argued that, after this, Jordi Pujol published the statement "voluntarily and freely," precisely the same words used by Josep Pujol Ferrusola's lawyer, Jaime Campaner, to deny it. On behalf of the State Attorney's Office, José Ignacio Ocio argued that the journalistic information reached the case "untainted" and defended the dissemination of the banking information of the children of the former president of the Generalitat, which Campaner attributed to "state intervention" and dubbed a "strip," as "the legitimate exercise of the fundamental right to receive truthful information." He questioned whether it constituted a "disclosure of secrets."