The Pujol lawyer questions the accusation: "Is this taken to a trial in a democratic state?"

San Fernando de HenaresFor more than two hours, Cristóbal Martell has tried to dismantle the Prosecutor's accusation against Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, who faces 29 years in prison. The family's lawyer began vehemently to highlight the lack of evidence to support the "grandiose assertion" that the former president of the Generalitat wove a "clientelism network" to profit from illegal commissions in exchange for public works: "When an accusation begins with such a bombastic and ambitious frontispiece, one expects columns that solidly support that gross assertion. Nothing," he proclaimed. "Does this satisfy a filing by the public prosecutor's office and bring it to a court in a democratic state?" he asked ironically at one point during his speech. "It does not seem reasonable to bring this to a court of justice in a state of law with guarantees," he added at another point.

Likewise, Cristóbal Martell complained about the lack of concrete suspicions: "One expects to know which tenders were rigged and which contracts were bartered. Nothing. Not a single mention that answers this serious assertion." Cristóbal Martell lamented that the trial, which he dubbed a "punitive feast" to which they have been "invited," has been characterized by a "resounding lack of evidence" and that the case "has poisoned the eyes" with which Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's entire economic life is viewed. He believes that both in the "flowery" indictment by the Prosecutor's Office and throughout the five months of trial, there has been an "unbearable resounding lack of evidence," a "vagueness and imprecision," and even certain "outlandish things." Behind the scenes, lawyers sharing the bench with Cristóbal Martell are full of praise. "He has made a brilliant exercise in demolishing the house of cards," celebrates one of the businessmen's lawyers. "He has been a steamroller," argues another.

Regarding the suspicions of corruption, the lawyer of the firstborn has reproached the prosecutor for having dedicated himself to creating a "climate" of doubt, for example, "repeating like a mantra" that the money movements in Andorra coincided with the Barcelona Olympic Games of 1992. "You cannot tarnish with broad strokes," he denounced. "As a conjecture or suspicion, things are spoken of, whether they have to do with the Pujols or not," he stressed. Jaime Campaner, Josep Pujol's lawyer, took his testimony and insisted on this, reproving the "winks" and the "precariousness" of the accusations and the "trivialization" that the prosecutor made of the presumption of innocence: "It has never been tolerated by the Supreme Court," he warned. Subsequently, Francesc Sánchez alluded to the "ghostly intervention" of Oriol Pujol that the prosecutor tried to present: "He has not been asked about him," he said. And he resorted to irony: "If the trial lasts another month, perhaps the assassination of Kennedy will appear".

The inheritance of grandfather Florenci

At all times, the Pujol family has attributed the fortune that the siblings and Marta Ferrusola had in Andorra to the famous inheritance of grandfather Florenci. A thesis that the Prosecutor's Office does not believe and maintains that it comes from corruption. "Is it extravagant or is it a reasonable alternative that he had funds abroad and, landing due to an unstable political situation, wanted to have a cushion for his grandchildren in a context of little understanding of his son's political life?", Cristóbal Martell has asked himself. "It is not extravagant, but reasonable," he himself has replied. The day after the Prosecutor reproached the defenses for not being able to prove the origin of the Andorran funds, the Pujol's lawyer argued that it is "not an easy task" to prove the existence of opaque funds –"because they are opaque," he admitted– from the 1970s, although he recalled – as an element to prove it – that Florenci Pujol used to exchange currency in Tangier and was convicted of currency trafficking.

In this regard, he argued that the Prosecutor's Office's account leads to "the obligation to doubt" and indicated to the court that it is not forced to validate either thesis: "You may not consider it proven that the money comes from the legacy, but you cannot state that it comes from criminal activity. Our system of guarantees does not place us at a crossroads; there is room for the presumption of innocence." Pau Ferrer, lawyer for Marta Pujol, Pere Pujol, Mireia Pujol, and Oleguer Pujol, expressed himself in the same vein: "The question is whether objective certainty can be achieved in relation to such old events. Can you conclude without any doubt that this money has a certain origin?", he asked the court. "This lack of certainty leads to acquittal due to insufficient evidence," he concluded.

"A persecution of a way of understanding Catalonia"

Cristóbal Martell has not made reference to the impact of Operation Catalonia on the case, but Francesc Sánchez, Oriol Pujol's lawyer, has referred to it directly. He has argued that it is "absolutely credible" that the executives of Banca Privada de Andorra were "coerced" to provide information on the pro-independence leaders and has maintained that it has been "evidenced" that the case had a "strange beginning". "I am not saying there was political persecution, there has been persecution of a way of understanding what Catalonia is, for being who they are and because Jordi Pujol was the spiritual father of a way of understanding the country," he argued.

Next, Pau Ferrer argued that "facts and law were forced" to attribute to them an "non-existent" crime of money laundering simply because they are the sons of the former president of the Generalitat. Even Oriol Rusca, lawyer for Mercè Gironès – ex-wife of the eldest son –, has equated the accusations with the "inquisition" and has denounced a speculative case: "They were going after the president and they couldn't. And they started looking. They didn't start from police hypotheses, they started from objectives, and the objective was the Pujol family. [...] Money laundering is a crime of desire, what everyone wished it would be".