Justice rejects Rajoy’s last attempt to stop Andorra’s lawsuit
The attempt to avoid indictment in Andorra through the Spanish justice system has not been successful. The Provincial Court of Madrid has thrown to the ground the purpose of the former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his former ministers Jorge Fernandez Diaz (inside) and Christopher Montoro (Treasury) to paralyze the rogatory commission issued by the Andorran authorities to inform them that they are going to be investigated for alleged pressures so that the Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) would fall. An action that, according to the complaint that has motivated the opening of the case, could be linked to the so-called ‘catalonia operationin which banking information of independence leaders would have been sought.
In three similar orders, to which La Información has had access, the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Madrid has dismissed the complaint resources -a procedural tool that does not go into the substance of the matter- that the defenses of the former leaders of the PP have presented as a last resort to annul said letter rogatory. Specifically, they challenged the decision of an investigating judge in the capital not to admit the first briefs contrary to the processing of judicial assistance issued by specialized investigating judge number 2 of Andorra, Stephanie Garcia.
Last June, the magistrate of the Principality activated the international cooperation mechanism so that the Spanish justice could notify Rajoy, Montoro and Fernández Díaz of the imputation for the alleged crimes constraints, threats, extortion Y blackmailIn addition to a crime of documentary falsehood, for allegedly having used “illegal channels” to obtain bank information from the former presidents of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol Y arthur moreas well as the former vice president Oriol Junqueras.
The distribution shift in the courts located in the Plaza de Castilla in Madrid ordered that the person in charge of transferring the complaint to the former head of the Executive and the former ministers was the head of the Investigating Court number 32, Rosa María Freire, known for directing the investigation of media causes such as the one related to the destruction of the computers of the former treasurer of the PP Luis Bárcenas, from which the political formation was finally acquitted. In this way, the magistrate communicated the specific points of the rogatory commission, among which were the within 15 days to customize in the case -once it was notified-, under the warning that if they do not appoint a lawyer who can practice in Andorra, they will be assigned a lawyer by trade to each of them in order to guarantee their right of defence.
No “legality control”
However, Rajoy, Montoro and Fernández Díaz -the latter prosecuted at the National Court for ‘Operation Kitchen’ to spy on Bárcenas- have tried to avoid the imputation in Andorra. His defenses filed an appeal before the Madrid judge in charge of processing the assistance from the Principality for possible violation of rights, alleging that he did not make a “basic legality control”. In this sense, the first appeals denounced that the investigating magistrate carried out the notification procedures without checking their skills for it or if Rajoy enjoyed “immunity” by the position of the head of the Executive that he held at the time of the facts set forth in the complaint.
Judge Freire automatically dismissed the claims of the “popular” ex-politicians, although she allowed a second way: the one of the resource of complaint before the Provincial Court of Madrid, which happens to have to transfer it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in whose report he stated that “there is no reason or legal basis” to not admit the claims, according to advance ABC. The Public Ministry said that the request of the Andorran judicial authority “it is not a simple notification but also a requirement” and, therefore, recurrent.
After analyzing all these arguments, the magistrates have reached the conclusion that the decision of the investigating judge Freire not to accept the first appeals was not correct. As they explain in their three resolutions issued on October 5, the provision of legal assistance “it has no automatic character”but is subject to review by the jurisdictional body in charge of its execution and, they warned, that said ‘examination'”complies with internal regulations of the requested party”, in this case the Spanish laws. In this line, the court affirms that the procedure to comply with the judicial request of another State is understood as “a criminal proceeding” and, following the “general rule”, any judicial decision “that is not expressly excluded from appeal is likely to recur“.
“No content”
With this, the magistrates agree with Rajoy and his former ministers in this regard, although they frustrate the hopes of stopping the action of `the justice of Andorra on them. According precisely to the Section, the complaint has been “in practice without content”. In addition to the notification of the complaint, the investigating judge of Madrid complied with the rest of the points indicated in the rogatory commission, such as the police investigation practicebecause his counterpart in the Principality authorized the exchange of data between the police forces of different countries to clarify the facts.
“It would no longer be possible to revoke the resolution initially appealed in which it is agreed to practice a diligence already carried out and exhaustedTherefore, the issue related to the admission for processing of the appeal filed against it is also of no interest and could not in practice have any effect“, clarify the magistrates. Thus, the Second Section of the Madrid Court finally dismisses the complaints of the former ‘popular’ against the processing of the rogatory commission. This decision it is firmsince there is no recourse against it.
“It would no longer be possible to revoke the resolution initially appealed in which it is agreed to carry out a procedure already carried out and exhausted”
Complaint admitted in 2020
The former ‘popular’ leaders are under investigation as a result of a second extension of the complaint filed by the entities Juristes Drets and l’Institut de Drets Humans d’Andorra (Idha), which was admitted for processing by Judge Garcia in May 2020. The associations committed to Rajoy and Montoro the alleged intimidation of the Andorran head of government at the time, Antoni Marti, and three of its ministers, during an official visit to the Principality on January 8, 2015, to intervene and liquidate the BPA. They are also accused of having sent “false” information to FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), dependent on the United States Department of the Treasury, for the issuance of a alert on money laundering against the entity, which would have caused the disappearance of the bank on March 10, 2015.
As for Fernández Díaz, the complainants focus on him, as well as on his ‘number two’ in the Ministry, francisco martinezand in the then director of the Police, Ignacio Cosido, for being the superiors of the police officers who carried out what was baptized as ‘Operation Catalonia’. The accusation – in which the former president of BPA also participated, Hygini Cercoand the former CEO of the entity, joan pau miquel– They attribute responsibility for alleged coercion and extortion maneuvers to the bank’s leaders to obtain data from the bank accounts of the Pujol family – pending trial in the National High Court -, Mas and Junqueras.