Andorra investigates Rajoy and Fernández Díaz for alleged pressure on BPA
An Andorran judge has notified the former Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and his former Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, that he is investigating them as a result of a lawsuit for alleged pressure on the Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) to obtain information of Catalan politicians during the procés. The investigation derived from a complaint, admitted for processing in 2020, which appeared the Institut de Drets Humans d’Andorra, Drets and the former president of BPA, Higini Cierco, for the so-called ‘Operation Catalonia’ and includes as investigated the former Secretary of State for the Interior Francisco Martínez and the former director of the Police Ignacio Cosidoas reported by the complainant entities.
Andorra’s number 2 investigating judge, Stéphanie Garcia Garcia, has now issued rogatory commissions to notify the complaint to those denounced and gives them fifteen days to designate legal representation, warning them that if they do not do so, one will be appointed ex officio, the Institut and Drets have explained in a statement. The judge has also agreed to refer new commissions rogatory to the former deputy director of operations (DAO) of the National Police Eugenio Pino and former chief inspector Bonifacio Diez, who were already summoned but did not appear.
The lawsuit, which was initially directed against the members of the so-called “patriotic police”, was later expanded as a result of the incorporation of new denouncers, among them the Pujol family. The complaint, filed for the crimes of coercion, threats, extortion, blackmail and false documents, accuses Rajoy and Fernandez Diaz to send members of the police to pressure those responsible for the BPA to obtain information on the bank accounts of Catalan politicians in the Principality, including former president Artur Mas, the ERC leader Oriol Junqueras or the Pujol family.
The complaint maintains that the Spanish Government would have extorted those responsible for the BPA, threatening them with forcing the closure of the entity and its Spanish subsidiary Banco Madrid -both already closed- if they did not provide the required information. According to the complainants, the Rajoy government allegedly sent false information about BPA to the United States financial crime control office, while “intimidating” the Andorran government and its ministers during an official visit to the Principality in January 2015, to precipitate the closure of the entity.