The trial against the Pujol Ferrusola family has entered its final stretch. This week has been dominated by the experts proposed by the prosecution and the defense to assess the business dealings of the eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat. And the highlight has been the confrontation between two tax experts and three specialists proposed by the firstborn's defense, which began on Tuesday and will conclude next Friday in an extraordinary session. In total, it will amount to over ten hours of testimony.

After three months of listening to witnesses, the trial against the Pujol Ferrusola family is immersed in the declarations of experts, who must shed light on the business dealings of the eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat. Two of those who appeared this Tuesday at the Audiencia Nacional were names that emerged in the media in July in the framework of the Montoro case: Francisco Piedras and Manuel de Vicente-Tutor. They are tax inspectors, they are managing partners of Equipo Económico – the firm founded by Cristóbal Montoro and which is at the epicenter of the alleged corruption scheme – and they are being investigated by the courts of Tarragona.

Does the fortune of the Pujols in Andorra come from the famous inheritance of grandfather Florenci or from illegal commissions in exchange for political favors? This is the big question that is being tried to be clarified in a trial that already has 24 sessions and has brought 200 witnesses before the National Court so far. The interrogations, with recurring technical problems and repeated memory lapses, are focusing particularly on the operations carried out by Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, who faces 29 years in prison for five crimes. Many witnesses have accredited the eldest son's role as an intermediary: he offered "many business opportunities" to businessmen – it was all relationships between private individuals – and in return, he received compensation if the project was successful. However, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office believes that the money movements served to mask commissions that responded to a "network of clientelism" that his father had woven from the Generalitat. For the moment, this favoritism has not been proven during the trial.

"Reverend Father, I am the Mother Superior of the congregation. I would like you to transfer two missals from my library to the parish chaplain's library." The letter, written in code by Marta Ferrusola, went viral even before things started going viral. The wife of former president Jordi Pujol was giving orders to transfer money between the family's accounts in Andorra. And this Wednesday, it was the turn of "Reverend Father" to testify. Josep Maria Pallerola, who was the Pujols' first manager in Andorra, admitted before the court that he was nicknamed "Father" because he had "a priest's face." It was prosecutor Fernando Bermejo who brought the matter to light. famous handwritten note that Ferrusola sent to Banca Reig. "I remember they called me 'Father' somewhat jokingly," Pallerola confessed.

Francesc Sánchez (Sant Boi, 1971) is Oriol Pujol's lawyer in the trial currently taking place at the Audiència Nacional. During the preliminary questions, he denounced that the start of the investigation was "unlawful" and responded to the "will" of "part of the State apparatus" to want to "influence" the independence process. A few weeks ago, he provided the documentation from the case underway in Andorra regarding the disappearance of Banca Privada d'Andorra to prove the intervention of State sewers. The former legal representative of Convergència is confident that the pending witness statements from Celestino Barroso –former Interior attaché at the Andorran embassy– and Joan Pau Miquel –former CEO of BPA– will support this and celebrates that the president of the court, José Ricardo de Prada, "put a stop" to José Manuel Villarejo.

Since the court in the Pujol trial accepted that José Manuel Villarejo and other members of the patriotic police would testify as witnesses, there was a lot of expectation –especially in the media– about what they would say. They were to answer about the obtaining of banking information from the family of the former president of the Generalitat, which was leaked to El Mundo, and about the genesis of the criminal case, which started more than ten years ago. However, they have provided few specifics, few certainties, and many shadows of doubt on all the questions the defense attorneys have asked them. With contradictory statements that have been denied by journalistic investigations and revelations in recent years.

Since the Pujol case trial court accepted that José Manuel Villarejo and other members of the patriotic police When they testified as witnesses, there was much anticipation—more from the media than the courts—to hear what they would say. They had to answer questions about the maneuvers they carried out to illegally obtain banking information from the family of the former president of the Generalitat—information that was leaked to The World—and regarding the origins of the criminal case—which began more than ten years ago following a complaint filed by Vicky Álvarez, the eldest son's former lover, encouraged by Villarejo. However, the four witnesses who have testified have provided few concrete details and few certainties, and instead have offered a display of evasiveness and sown many shadows of doubt.

While the trial of the Pujol Ferrusola family continues at the National Court – accused, among other things, of illicit association and money laundering – Salvador Illa makes a second approach to Jordi Pujol and Soley. After the first meeting within the framework of the round Illa met with former presidents of the Generalitat last Friday at the Palau de Pedralbes because the current Catalan president wanted to inquire about Pujol's health, who a few weeks ago He was hospitalized for pneumonia.According to sources within the Generalitat who spoke to ARA, the news was first reported. The VanguardThis coincides with the fourth day of the trial, which is being held in San Fernando de Henares. Three weeks ago, the National Court decided continue judging Jordi Pujol and Soley although the medical reports They advised against it

Florenci Pujol i Brugat was an interesting character. He made most of his considerable fortune by trafficking in the scarcest commodity in an autarkic dictatorship: the foreign currency that allowed the Catalan textile industry to import and export. Now, 45 years after his death in 1980, he is at the center of a trial against his son Jordi and seven of his grandchildren. It is curious that Pau Ferrer, the lawyer for four of the former president's children (Marta, Mireia, Pere, and Oleguer), presented the book as evidence for the defense in the first session of the trial. Banca Catalana. More than a bank, more than a crisisThat book was written by Siscu Baiges, Jaume Reixach, and myself after a long and unpleasant investigation: Jordi Pujol's bankrupt bank was a taboo subject, and no one wanted to speak openly about it. Pressure and threats abounded, both before and after publication. The book marked the lives of the three of us in one way or another.

The prosecutor in the Pujol family trial stated this morning that "Political issues cannot be introduced into a procedural, legal, and substantive matter such as the investigation and prosecution of crimes." The statement is so perfect that if you asked an actor to say it... Poland And adding canned laughter in the background would work as a gag.

The patriotic police The issue has resurfaced in the trial of the Pujol Ferrusola family. 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 Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office sought to draw a line between the state's dirty tricks and the trial that began on Monday at the National Court. "No evidence has been manipulated for ulterior motives, and it 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" by turning them into grounds for annulment 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.

"What am I doing here?" "What am I defending myself against?" These are two questions that have been raised by two of the lawyers for the accused businessmen in the trial of the Pujol Ferrusola family which summarize the impotence expressed by the rest of the defense teams during the second session. They all converged in repeatedly denouncing violations of the right to a defense, the right to a fair trial, the right to effective judicial protection, and the adversarial principle. Basically, they believe that the facts that have brought them to trial are vague and indeterminate, and that their description can only lead to exoneration.

Although doctors have assessed that Jordi Pujol was not in a physical or cognitive condition to participate in the trial, the National Court has refused to exonerate him and is requiring him to participate remotely. From a television perspective, this has resulted in a very close first look at Jordi Pujol, very vulnerable and glued to the computer screen. The programs have already selected this image as the primary and emblematic one of the proceedings. Pujol's face, pressed against the computer camera, his nose practically touching the screen, will become an icon of the trial. Beyond the reasonable doubts about whether the former president has adequate hearing of what is happening in the courtroom, this image is by no means neutral. On Monday, Toni Cruanyes opened the Evening news with this close-up projected onto one of the enormous vertical screens to his side, oversizing the image. Performing one of those theatrical displays typical of Sesame Street In the segment dedicated to us viewers, the presenter said: "Jordi Pujol testified via videoconference, and that's the image we saw of him," proof that this framing is unusual and provokes a certain amount of astonishment. On Tuesday morning, Ana Rosa Quintana also used it, choosing precisely the moment when Jordi Pujol sniffled, accentuating the decrepitude that the scene already suggests.

The first day of the Pujol Ferrusola family trial left two images for the history books: the former president of the Generalitat following the proceedings remotely from his home, and his seven children seated in the dock. It also highlighted two distinct yet complementary defense strategies: one that emphasizes the National Court's lack of jurisdiction to try the case and the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes, and another that stresses the impact of Operation Catalonia.

On one side, there were not one, not two, but three medical reports concurring that Jordi Pujol was unfit to stand trial. On the other side, there were judges eager to try him who didn't trust the reports, and a defendant eager to testify. And so, despite everyone who considered such documents grounds for dismissing the case against him, Jordi Pujol will be tried.

Jordi Pujol was one of the first targets of Operation Catalonia, launched by Jorge Fernández Díaz's Ministry of the Interior to wage a dirty war against the then-emerging Catalan independence movement. Pujol and his family were prioritized even though the president had long since left power, was not a key figure in what later became known as the Process of Catalan Independence, and had not declared himself in favor of independence. In its efforts to seize the Pujol family's accounts in Andorra, Operation Catalonia allegedly committed various crimes and destroyed two banks: Banca Privada de Andorra and its Spanish subsidiary, Banco de Madrid.

"The court has decided that the trial will begin with him present." Despite unfavorable forensic reports advising against it, the National Court has refused to exonerate Jordi Pujol i Soley and has decided to proceed with his trial. His seven children, the eldest son's ex-wife, and ten businesspeople are also in the dock in a trial that comes four years after the investigation concluded and which must determine whether the Pujol family's fortune in Andorra originated with their grandfather, Florenci, or was augmented with money from illegal commissions. The prosecution accuses the former president of the Generalitat of the crimes of illicit association and money laundering and is seeking a nine-year prison sentence.

This Monday it begins at the National Court the trial of the decade. Over the course of six months, the court will have to discern whether the money that the Pujol Ferrusola family had in Andorra came from the inheritance of grandfather Florenci, as the former Catalan president claims since his confession in July 2014, or came from "illicit million-dollar payments" from businessmen in exchange for "political favors".