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Laura Borràs now asks that a popular jury judge her

2022-07-01T15:51:18.625Z


The president of the Parliament files an appeal against her prosecution to gain time before being sent to trial


The President of the Parliament, Laura Borràs. Quique García (EFE)

The president of the Parlament, Laura Borràs, does not want to be judged by magistrates but by a popular jury, that is, by nine citizens of Catalonia chosen at random.

That is the request that she has just made before the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) just two days after learning that she has been prosecuted for corruption offences.

Borràs's defense has appealed in this way the order issued by the TSJC, in a new maneuver to gain time and delay the opening of the oral trial, a circumstance that, if the Parliament's regulations were applied, would force him to leave the seat and, therefore, the presidency of the Chamber.

The petition, according to judicial sources, has very little chance of success.

Borràs is one step away from the dock for his management at the head of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC) between 2013 and 2018. The leader of Junts per Catalunya allegedly artificially split contracts to award them, by hand (without competition public) to Isaías H., a computer scientist with whom he had collaborated professionally.

The institution of the Generalitat that promotes literature in Catalan ended up paying the friend of the now president of the Parliament more than 300,000 euros.

Borràs has been prosecuted for prevarication, embezzlement, fraud and falsehood.

In the coming weeks, the Prosecutor's Office will present her indictment, in which she will very possibly ask for prison sentences and disqualification.

To delay that writing and set another game scenario more conducive to their interests, Borràs' defense has presented a new resource this Friday.

The intention of the president of the Parliament is to submit not to the criteria of the magistrates - she has always denounced that her case is a persecution due to her status as an independentista - but of the nine citizens, chosen at random, who make up the jury .

Lawyer Gonzalo Boye admits in the brief that the crime of prevarication is expressly excluded in the Law of the Jury.

But he believes that this should not be the case, since that "deprives citizens of their power to prosecute the conduct of those who hold decision-making power over their affairs: officials, authorities and judges."

"We believe that the natural judge of all power is none other than the citizen who has elevated him to that position," justifies the lawyer.

For this reason, he has asked the judge to send an issue of unconstitutionality so that the Constitutional Court can debate that issue.

In the event that the TSJC refuses to do so -judicial sources assume that this will be the case-, Borràs's defense requests that the case be split in two, so that he faces two different trials.

In a hypothetical procedure only for prevarication (issue a resolution knowing its injustice) the TSJC would judge her;

in the other, for the rest of the crimes (embezzlement, false documents and fraud against the administration), a popular jury would do it.

Borràs, who until now has availed himself of his right not to testify, has always presented the case as a "political persecution", which is part of what he considers a "repressive operation" against secessionism and maintains that he enjoys the support of the citizens.

His request is based on the belief that if they are to judge her, she has a better chance of being acquitted.

In March, the TSJC already issued an indictment for the case of irregularities in the ILC.

On that occasion, the defenses of Borràs and another of the four investigated filed appeals (to have more time, to present new proceedings) that were admitted by the court.

Borràs then made no mention of the idea of ​​the popular jury.

Judicial sources assure that none of the maneuvers of the president of the Parlament - and much less that of referring a question that is clear to the Constitutional Court - will prosper.

The judicial future of Borràs will mark the future of the legislature.

ERC will have to position itself in Parliament on whether it considers that the president of the Chamber should be removed from her seat, by opening an oral trial for a crime related to corruption.

Etso could bring down the Government, because in Junts they are willing to defend their president until the end.

The question is whether Pere Aragonès decides to keep the legislature ruling alone.

The Republicans reject that the trial of Borràs is seen as one more episode of "repression".


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-01

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