The judge dismisses sending Vergés and Argimon to prison for the covid vaccination case

BarcelonaThe trial of former health department officials for "discriminating" against police officers and civil guards in the COVID vaccination campaign will not end with prison sentences. At the start of the trial this Tuesday, the Barcelona Court has excluded from the case the crime against workers' rights that the unions were pursuing and which could have led to sentences of up to three years in prison. The Prosecutor's Office requests the disqualification for 12 years of those who led the ministry at the time and accuses them, like the police unions, of having "paralyzed" the vaccination of these agents and not prioritizing them over the general population, as they did with other emergency services. Among the figures provided by the accusers is the vaccination rate of the agents: at a time when the vaccination rate was 2.8% among civil guards and 3.6% among national police officers, it reached 77% among the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Barcelona Municipal Police.

In the dock at the Barcelona Court sat the then Minister of Health, Alba Vergés, and the then Director General of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS), Josep Maria Argimon, who later became Secretary of Public Health and Minister of Health. After this first session, they will not have to return to court unless they wish to, until the day they have to testify. The court stated that when they have lengthy trials, it is not their custom to "chain" the accused to the courtroom. "You already know from another trial," said magistrate José Manuel del Amo, president of the same court that tried Neymar and allowed him to be absent.

The Prosecutor's Office attributes both Vergés and Argimon with an alleged crime of prevarication and requests 12 years of disqualification from holding public office, although currently neither of them holds any position in the Government. In contrast, the police unions wanted to increase the sentence to three years in prison and 15 years of disqualification, and in addition to prevarication, they also wanted to accuse them of a crime against workers' rights. This intention has been ruled out on the first day of the trial, dedicated to the preliminary proceedings. As requested by the defense in accordance with the so-called Botín doctrine, the court has excluded the crime against workers' rights because, without the prosecutor's accusation, popular accusations cannot attribute another crime to the defendants.

The first session also served to anticipate the "linguistic barrier" of the lawyers representing the four associations acting as popular prosecutors: the Professional Official Union of the Civil Guard; Jupol, Jucil and the Professional Police Union (SPP). The president of the court expressly asked them if they would have difficulties in case any defendant or witness in the case wished to testify in Catalan. One of the lawyers asked for everything to be in Spanish, explaining that he is from Zaragoza and even though he spends his holidays in Tarragona, he would not be able to understand them. The magistrate told him no, that the solution would be to bring in an interpreter so they could testify in Catalan.

With all the defendants acquitted of the crime against workers, the request for 12 years of disqualification for prevarication remains. Like Vergés and Argimon, the former general secretary of Health Marc Ramentol and the former director of CatSalut Adrià Comella, who is now managing director at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, face the same requests. Xavier Rodríguez Guasch, former director of Health services, also remains accused of the same crime: although the Prosecutor's Office asked for the case to be dismissed for him, the police unions also point the finger at him.

The defendants will not testify until the last stretch of the trial, from Friday the 10th to Wednesday the 15th of July. On Wednesday, police commanders will testify, and the rest of the witnesses will do so on the 6th and 7th. The former Secretary of Public Health Carmen Cabezas – who was investigated at the beginning of the investigation –, the then director of the professional area of CatSalut Sara Manjón, and also the former delegate of the Spanish government Teresa Cunillera, will pass through the courtroom.

"They were aware of it"

The accusations focus on the decisions of the Health leadership around February 2021. On the 9th, the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System decided to prioritize vaccination with AstraZeneca for groups with special functions, such as police officers. Three days later, the ministry began vaccinating these groups, respecting the age restriction in place at the time for this vaccine, which was only administered to people between 18 and 55 years old. On March 15th, the Interterritorial Council decided to suspend all AstraZeneca vaccinations due to detected thrombosis cases, but a week later it reauthorized this vaccine, now without age limitations. In fact, they decided to prioritize the population between 60 and 65 years old.

According to the accusations, Health officials chose to prioritize this age group over police officers, despite the fact that there was a much lower vaccination rate among Civil Guards and National Police officers than among the Mossos and the Urban Guard. As the prosecutor describes in the indictment, the defendants were "fully aware that this decision was, in fact, discriminating against officers from state bodies".

During the investigation of the case, the defense of Argimon and Carmen Cabezas has provided the court with messages indicating that Vergés had ordered not to prioritize officers in vaccination. Among other evidence to be debated in the trial is a message from an advisor to Vergés stating: "Once again, the minister asks to stop the Civil Guard and National Police. We cannot argue this. We should stop it".

Before this criminal case that is now going to trial, the vaccination of police officers against covid was the subject of civil litigation in which the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) condemned the Generalitat for discriminating against officers of the national police and civil guards and forced them to be vaccinated within 10 days.