The Supreme Court certifies the end of the Russian plot: it will not investigate Puigdemont.

BarcelonaThe Supreme Court will not investigate former president and Junts leader Carles Puigdemont for the alleged Russian plot in the Trial. Judge Aguirre's latest attempt to refer the case regarding the Kremlin's alleged interference in Catalan politics to the highest Spanish court has been derailed after the judges archived the proceedings sent to them by the investigating judge. The reason? The Barcelona Court has already closed the case. and annulled Aguirre's actions since the summer of 2024. This includes the referral of part of the case to the Supreme Court by the investigating judge regarding the two suspects who have the status of members of Parliament (Carles Puigdemont and Francesc de Dalmases) who have immunity. "This chamber does not have jurisdiction to supervise or control the correctness of this decision [of the Barcelona Court], which was adopted by the judicial body competent to hear all appealable decisions of the investigating judge and which has become final," the judges of the Supreme Court's criminal chamber stated in the resolution, consulted by ARA. Therefore, Aguirre's request comes to nothing.

"The only correct procedural solution is to archive the proceedings," the Supreme Court judges explain. They recall, in the ruling, that it is not their responsibility "to analyze either the substance of the statement that has been stripped of its effectiveness or the correctness of the decision adopted with full jurisdiction by the Barcelona Court." In this sense, they defend that their role is to "scrupulously respect these jurisdictional decisions that, in accordance with procedural rules, we are not called to evaluate." This part of the Russian plot also affected the lawyer Gonzalo Boye, the former minister Elsa Artadi, Josep Lluís Alay – Carles Puigdemont's right-hand man –, the journalist Natàlia Boronat, the activist and friend of Puigdemont, Miquel Casals, and the journalist Carles Porta – of whomAguirre said that "he had to play some role"because he knew about Puigdemont's meetings with Russian businessmen.

In this way, the Supreme Court also buries Judge Aguirre's thesis on the alliance between the Catalan independence movement and Russia. The judge had charged Puigdemont with high treason in a movement that sought to circumvent the amnesty law. The regulations placed, precisely, that crime under the exclusions section. What was Aguirre's thesis in this investigation? That the people she had singled out had established "international relations that would have the purpose of obtaining international support, economic aid, international recognition, and financial support from the governments of China and Russia for a supposed Catalan republic split from the Kingdom of Spain and, thereby, facilitate foreign interference in Spanish territory and the use of public funds destined to finance it."

However, at the end of last year, the Barcelona High Court closed the case when it ruled on the appeal filed by several of those under investigation and directed the Supreme Court to do the same. The court sent the case to the Supreme Court for its "investigation" and to take the "effects it deemed appropriate" regarding Puigdemont and Dalmases, both of whom were investigated and had immunity. In that ruling, the High Court accused Judge Aguirre of committing "legal fraud" with his attempts to continue the investigation. One of the criticisms leveled at him by the court was that he had disobeyed the appeal that the High Court had granted to the defense, which had led to a "clear and precise" order to "end the investigation" because Aguirre did not correctly request the extension.

After the Supreme Court's ruling, Carles Puigdemont has asked "not to lose the memory of the repression": "Because the Spanish have never lost their memory of repressors," he wrote in a tweet to X. "They were purely political causes that have been stretched like chewing gum down the drain and the -isms," he added.