Andic's defense tries to refute the investigation into his father's death and denounces a "social condemnation"

BarcelonaJonathan Andic, under investigation for the death of his father, Mango owner Isak Andic, begins to defend himself. His lawyer, Cristóbal Martell, has filed an appeal with the Barcelona Court of Appeal to try to revoke the precautionary measures against his client, such as the one million euro bail he had to pay to avoid prison, the confiscation of his passport, or the prohibition from leaving the country. In his statement last week after being arrested by the Mossos d'Esquadra, Jonathan Andic limited himself to answering his lawyer's questions with monosyllables. Now that he has had access to the 1,400-page case file and has been able to learn what are the various indications surrounding him, Martell has attempted to begin refuting them in this appeal, to which ARA has had access.

Specifically, Martell argues before the Barcelona Court of Appeal that Isak Andic had previously fallen due to knee problems and also denies that Jonathan went to Montserrat three times before his father's fatal fall. Martell also insists that none of the five forensic reports prepared on Isak Andic contain "anything incriminating".

After analyzing Jonathan's car, the Mossos discovered that he had gone to the Collbató car park three times, and his mobile phone also indicates that he would have taken the same route a few days before doing so with his father. Now Andic's defense claims that he only went to Montserrat twice: on Saturday, December 7, for an excursion, and on December 10, when he wanted to go for another walk that he had to cut short due to bad weather, which explains why he parked his car for a short time. It is not unusual for him, he argues in the appeal, to repeat the same route when he goes for a walk.

Cristóbal Martell, however, not only defends Jonathan Andic but also attacks the Mossos d'Esquadra. Specifically, he criticizes an alleged "trickle" of police leaks from the investigation and criticizes his "unnecessary" arrest. All of this, the document states, has caused him "social condemnation as an anticipated penalty," in addition to being taken to court in handcuffs and media being able to capture it. Everything has led, according to Martell, to an "information tsunami" surrounding the "order intentionally handed over to the media."

Knee problems

In the appeal, the defense also argues that Isak Andic, 71, suffered a fall at an event at Mutua Universal about three months before his death and that it is recorded on video. It suggests it could be due to a knee condition, seeking a way to explain the fall to Montserrat. In this regard, the defense has provided a report prepared by forensic doctors alongside Francisco Marco, former director of the Método 3 detective agency, which rules out that the reports provided so far indicate an "intervention" by third parties in a fall "due to a push." The report further emphasizes that Isak Andic suffered from "bilateral gonarthrosis" in both knees, which could explain his fall being "more vertical and less controlled," without causing injuries to the palms as it was a "loss of balance."

In the same judicial document, the defense denies that Jonathan Andic had contradictions when he testified, especially regarding how he remembers his father's fall. The defense states that these are nuances of expression, as everything happened very quickly. Jonathan was with his back turned, heard a noise, turned around, and that's when he realized the fall. "All accounts are perfectly compatible, without contradictions or modifications in the narrative. Simply, some are more complete than others, but without clashing," alleges the defense, which attaches the calls Jonathan Andic made to the emergency phone.

In the calls, Jonathan Andic first speaks with 112 and asks for help: "My father has fallen, oh, we are in Collbató, if he has fallen… (crying). I think he has fallen down a ravine, please, send someone, send an ambulance, send someone, please," Jonathan Andic requests, according to the transcript provided by the defense, which reiterates that in all versions he states that he was ahead of his father and could not accurately see the fall.

In the document to send him to provisional prison – which Andic avoided by paying one million euros – the judge of Martorell concludes that there is a "accumulation of evidence" that could implicate the eldest son, who in her opinion had an "active and premeditated participation" in the homicide due to his "obsession with money," fearing that his father would change his will to allocate part of his fortune to a social assistance foundation.

The footprint and the father-son relationship

Now Martell tries to distort, one by one, all the police and judicial arguments. He starts with the footprint, which the Mossos conclude does not fit the accident theory. Nevertheless, Andic's defense assures that the police instructor himself concludes in his report that "it cannot be determined if this slip had already been made prior to the fall" of the businessman. Furthermore, Martell criticizes that the police returned to the scene of the events "time and again", an area that was never cordoned off and which he considers contaminated and, therefore, not suitable for carrying out an expert test.

Andic's defense also denies that there was a bad relationship between father and son, despite the messages that the judge highlights in her writing. Now Martell assures that there is "not a single reproach" between father and son and attaches a set of statements taken from Jonathan Andic's two sisters, Isak Andic's brother, a friend of Mango's founder, his secretary, the head of services and personnel of the family, and the CEO. Jonathan's two sisters, for example, explain that the relationship was good, that the father did convey to them the idea of creating a foundation and that they, the children, would be its patrons. The other declarants provided by the defense also do not speak of a bad relationship.

The lawyers argue that the "Freudian idea of the father's death" expressed by Andic in some intercepted messages should be read in a "clinical context of a strongly directive psychoanalytic therapy in which the therapist fosters a certain confrontation of action and reaction to find growth". "Under this prism and context, they must be read and understood," states Martell. Regarding the inheritance during life that, according to the judge, Jonathan forced his father to grant him, the lawyers contend that, "far" from demonstrating an obsession with money, it was an "initial tool for independence that was soon renounced" by the son.

On the other hand, regarding the alleged theft of a mobile phone during a "lightning" trip to Ecuador, the defense considers that it is not an unusual or extravagant piece of information for an executive in the fashion industry to travel to very distant geographical points for very specific, hour-long meetings that require their physical presence. The Mossos suspect that on that trip Jonathan Andic disposed of the mobile phone he was carrying on the day of the accident. Here the defense adds that it is also "not a strange circumstance" to suffer a theft in Ecuador. Furthermore, it indicates that Jonathan Andic changed his mobile phone bi-annually and that he had asked the company for a new mobile phone some time ago, but had not gone to collect it.