The National High Court kicks off the trial of the Kitchen case. It is the operation orchestrated by the state's "sewers" to steal from Luis Bárcenas, the former treasurer of the PP, information or data that could compromise leaders of the Popular Party within the framework of the Gürtel case. Sitting on the defendant's bench are, among others, Jorge Fernández Díaz (who was Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2016), Francisco Martínez (who was Secretary of State for the Interior), Eugenio Pino (who was deputy operational director of the Spanish police) and retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. "I face the trial with great enthusiasm, I trust that the truth will prevail," Villarejo acknowledged upon arriving at the headquarters of the National High Court in San Fernando de Henares. And he said he has "no fear" of going to prison: "If they put me in again, it will be to not get out. Since they've seen that I don't shut up, it's normal that this time the plan works out for them," he added.

Year 2013. Mariano Rajoy governs Spain with an absolute majority and the "papers of Luis Bácenas" come to light, revealing the existence of a black box within the PP. Following this, the Ministry of the Interior, led by Jorge Fernández Díaz, designs and –according to the Public Prosecutor's account– launches an "illicit police intelligence operation" with the aim of stealing information and evidence from Luis Bárcenas, the former treasurer of the PP, that would incriminate popular leaders in the context of the Gürtel case. The ultimate objective is to "prevent" it from reaching the hands of the investigators. Five years later, that corruption trial ends with the sentence that leads to the motion of no confidence that brings Pedro Sánchez to La Moncloa. And now, thirteen years later, the leadership of the patriotic police sits on the defendants' bench, with "requests for fifteen years in prison by the Public Prosecutor's Office, in a trial that begins on Monday at the National Court and which will have to shed light on the maneuvers of the state's sewers to protect the PP. The main crimes they are accused of are cover-up, embezzlement, bribery, disclosure of secrets, and influence peddling.

This week, two trials are set to begin in Madrid that will undoubtedly have a significant impact on Spanish politics. This Monday, the trial for the Kitchen case kicks off at the National High Court, and on Tuesday, the Supreme Court will try the former minister and former organization secretary of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, for the first case affecting him: an alleged scheme to collect commissions for selling masks to various state institutions.

Last year, the Spanish courts blocked the Andorran judicial investigation into Operation Catalunya by closing the letter rogatory. The World The case seeking the indictment of former Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and former Interior and Finance Ministers Jorge Fernández Díaz and Cristóbal Montoro has now been reactivated, according to information obtained by ARA. Judge Stéphanie Garcia has again issued letters rogatory in Spain to the competent judicial authority to summon the political and judicial leaders of the Andorran branch of this alleged anti-independence plot.

I know you already know, but for the record: today marks one year since the amnesty and President Puigdemont and Ministers Comín and Puig remain in exile, and those who were political prisoners, like Oriol Junqueras, remain barred from office. Because when we say it's been a year since the amnesty, we mean that it's been a year since the amnesty law was passed. It's a law, passed in Congress. And it's being violated because the Supreme Court opposes it. And it will continue to be opposed when, in a few weeks, the Constitutional Court declares the amnesty law constitutional. No further questions, Your Honor.

If Jorge Fernández Díaz is capable of lying and saying that he does not recognize that conversation with Villarejo that we have all heard ("I will deny, even under torture, that that meeting ever took place"), it is not surprising that yesterday he lied saying that the Catalunya operation did not exist. After all, he also says that he knows nothing about the Kitchen case (the Bárcenas papers), for which the prosecutor is asking for 15 years in prison and for him to be suspended from membership by his own party.

"I have no knowledge of the existence of a so-called Catalunya operation," Mariano Rajoy said in a statement to the commission investigating the dirty war against the independence movement in Congress. The former president of the Spanish government and the PP has denied being aware of anything, as he did when he was questioned as a witness in the Gürtel trial in the summer of 2017, and in the lower house in another commission of inquiry into Operation Kitchen at the end of 2021. "I cannot become a commentary. I have no business here, although I am very comfortable," he stressed in his particular style.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Spain to pay €4,200 in compensation for "moral damages" to each of the Catalan judges who had appealed to the Strasbourg court after their case was dismissed in the State. The personal data and ID cards of the 33 Catalan judges who had signed a manifesto in favour of an independence referendum were leaked to the conservative daily La Razón in February 2014, a few months before the the 9 November vote on independence. The newspaper published an extensive article with the magistrates' names and ID photos.

New and compromising revelations about the Operation Catalonia. Former Home Affairs Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz led this operation against the Pujol family, according to newspaper El País based on a recording to which the newspaper and the news website Fuentes Informadas have had access to. The tape, recorded by former police superintendent José Manuel Villarejo, includes a meeting in the Ministry of Home Affairs –then led by Fernández Díaz– in mid-December 2012 in which the two of them and the then head of the police, Eugenio Pino, participated.