Courts

The Pujol family, ready for the trial of the decade

He is preparing a technical defense and is opting to request the telematic presence of the former president and that he not testify.

Jordi Pujol and Oriol Pujol are no longer members of the party's leadership.
18/10/2025
4 min

BarcelonaIf a political figure, both personally and politically, has been tried in Catalonia, it has been former President Jordi Pujol. More than a decade ago, his confession about the money abroad sent him into ostracism, from which he has only recently begun to emerge. But the point is that the trial that truly matters, the one that will determine his guilt or innocence, will be held this fall after more than twelve years of judicial investigation. It will begin on November 24th at the National Court and could become the trial of the decade. The Prosecutor's Office is seeking up to nine years in prison for the former president and 29 for his eldest son; while the State Attorney's Office is seeking no prison sentence for the former president and 25 years for his eldest son. How is the family facing this trial? What strategy will it follow? Will Jordi Pujol, at 95 years old, be in the dock in person?

First of all, let's recap. The case began before Jordi Pujol's statement on July 25, 2014: its origin dates back to 2012, following a complaint by Victoria Álvarez, the ex-partner of the Pujol's eldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, explaining that the family regularly brought money to Andorra. The case was merged with the one opened in Barcelona following Pujol's confession and ended up being consolidated in the National Court against the entire family, accused of criminal organization, money laundering, crimes against the public treasury, and document falsification. The trial is scheduled to last from November to May 14 and will be held at the National Court's headquarters in San Fernando de Henares, on the outskirts of Madrid. In addition to the former president and his seven children, the ex-wife of his eldest son, Mercè Gironès, and a dozen businessmen are also accused, since the prosecution's theory is that "the accused Jordi Pujol Soley took advantage of his political position to weave a network of patronage in favor of Pujol himself and Catalan administrations under the control of CDC."

The defense strategy

The profile of the lawyers chosen by the Pujol family speaks volumes about how they approach their defense in the National Court. They are Cristóbal Martell and Albert Carrillo, the family's trusted lawyer. Martell took on the legal defense of the former president's eldest son (the first to face charges) and then the entire family following his confession in 2014. The choice already sent a message. Xavier Melero, who had been the lawyer until then, took on all the cases related to the CDC and also the ITV case, which affected Oriol Pujol. The Pujols decided to separate the cases.

Martell is a prestigious lawyer, rarely seen speaking to the media, and who stands out for his skill in reaching agreements or avoiding jail time for his clients. He has been involved in such high-profile cases as the Alves case, the Neymar case, the Gürtel case, the Nóos case, and now defending Jonathan Andic, who is being investigated for the alleged murder of Mango magnate Isak Andic. "If there's a solution B, he'll find it," says a lawyer who has seen him work, referring to the deals to reduce sentences or achieve victory.

The Pujol family has no intention of reaching any agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, but rather intends to argue for an acquittal. They maintain the theory that the money from Andorra comes from the legacy of his grandfather, Florenci. After the Prosecutor's Office indictment, Martell defended the former president as follows: he asserts that the beginning of Pujol's political career caused his father "deep concern," and so, to "guarantee his financial stability," he informed his son and his daughter, Marta Ferrusola, that it constituted "a deposit in the depository." A fund, he says, that came to be managed by Delfí Mateu, a trusted person, and, upon his death, passed to the cousin of former President Joaquim Pujol. It was in 1990 that the eldest son of the Pujols, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, entered the scene.

"This family fund has no connection with the high public office of Jordi Pujol and Soley at the head of the Generalitat," the document states. It adds: "There is not a single income in the estate of his children and wife that has a causal relationship with an abusive and illegitimate exercise of his authority and public powers. The prosecution does not identify a single factual assumption."

This text already reveals the tone of the family's defense. Its tone will be far from the defense being conducted, for example, by Benet Salellas on behalf of Santos Cerdán in the Supreme Court. Or the one that took the former president of the Parliament Laura Borràs with the flag of the lawfare in the hands of lawyer Gonzalo Boye. It won't be political, despite the case's ties to Operation Catalunya; it will be technical, according to knowledgeable sources. Martell and Carrillo will defend Pujol and his six children, while Oriol Pujol, former secretary general of CDC, despite maintaining the same strategy, will be represented by another lawyer, Francesc Sánchez, who had been the legal director of Convergència.

Pujol's statement

However, if there's one key decision the lawyers must make, it's Pujol's presence at the trial. He has mobility problems—he must always be accompanied by one or two people—and his hearing is severely impaired, making it very difficult for him to follow a normal conversation. In this regard, two questions must be answered: first, whether he is fit to be present at each of the trial sessions, as is required for defendants; and second, whether he is fit to enter a plea as the accused.

One of the things he will request is to be present only at the first session of the trial and to be absent for the remaining days until his plea as the accused, which is expected to take place in the spring. But not in person: the lawyers plan to request that he be able to appear by videoconference from the City of Justice to avoid the logistics of traveling to the state capital and also all the media pressure surrounding the trial for his family. This is a decision, in any case, that the court must grant him.

And the question of whether to testify? Sources close to the case are leaning toward the former president exercising his right not to testify, but admit that it will be a decision they will have to make "on the fly," taking into account the opinions of Jordi Pujol and Soley himself. "There is debate," summarizes one knowledgeable source.

The question of amnesty

Although some voices within Junts, especially from the former Convergència party, had pushed for the inclusion of those cases contaminated by Operation Catalunya in the amnesty law, there was no agreement with the PSOE. Nor was this the case with Borràs or Boye in the Sito Miñanco case. Seeing how the law was drafted, Pujol's lawyers They rejected any request for amnesty.

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