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Josep Lluís Trapero: Return with a mask
Photo: Andreu Dalmau / imago images / Agencia EFE
Josep Lluís Trapero is back in office a good three years after his dismissal as head of the Catalan police.
The Catalan regional government announced this in a statement.
He had "three hard, painful years" behind him, explained Trapero after he took office.
The police major admitted on Friday on the sidelines of an event in Sabadell near Barcelona that he had made mistakes at the height of the Catalan independence conflict in autumn 2017.
"Everyone involved could have acted better back then, and I'll be the first to do that," he said.
Trapero had only been acquitted of allegations of rioting and the formation of a criminal organization by the National Court of Justice in Madrid on October 21.
These were related to the illegal independence referendum on October 1, 2017 in Catalonia.
The chief of police had been accused of having cooperated with the separatist leaders of the time, including the regional president Carles Puigdemont, who was deposed shortly afterwards, in order to facilitate the unconstitutional vote.
If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
The acquittal, meanwhile, enabled his return to office.
Just a few weeks before the escalation of the conflict of independence, Trapero had become a hero throughout Spain in solving the terrorist attacks in Barcelona in August 2017.
After the referendum on separation, the 54-year-old was removed from office on October 28, 2017 by the central government in Madrid, which placed Catalonia under forced administration at the time.
Puigdemont evaded the Spanish judiciary by, like other separatist politicians, evacuated to Belgium.
The Catalan separatists praised Trapero after his reinstatement became known.
It is a question of justice, tweeted Vice President Pere Aragones, who is currently running the Catalan government.
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slü / dpa