Josep Costa's 'show': the former Junts deputy leaves the trial for disobedience

The former deputy of Junts per Catalunya Josep Costa has decided to put on a show in the disobedience trial against him and against three other former members of the Catalan Parliament.

Costa, who defends himself and has the double status of defendant and lawyer, has left this Thursday the hearing room of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) where he is being tried for processing, in 2019, two resolutions despite Constitutional Court orders not to do so.

Costa 's

has caused stupefaction in court, which has nevertheless decided to go ahead with the hearing.

More information

Torrent wields parliamentary inviolability to stop his trial for disobedience

"I had not experienced a situation like this in 30 years," assured the president of the court, Carlos Mir, after observing how, despite efforts to keep him in court, Costa has abandoned her.

"I will not participate in this mock trial," Costa said after learning that the magistrates had rejected his request to annul the trial during the preliminary questions.

The former deputy maintains that the election of the court has not been fair because one of the judges who was removed on suspicion of bias, Jesús María Barrientos, had appointed his substitute.

It is not the first time that the former neoconvergent deputy draws attention to his situation.

A year ago he was arrested after refusing to appear before the magistrate who was leading the investigation for disobedience.

A defendant can be tried in absentia -as happened with the former president of the Generalitat Quim Torra- if they are minor crimes that carry a sentence of less than two years.

This is the case of Costa, the former president of Parliament Roger Torrent and the other two members of the table who are being tried, who do not even face a prison sentence but disqualification.

The defendant's defense, however, does have to be present, but the paradoxical situation has arisen in which Costa is, at the same time, defendant and defense.

LAST MINUTE.

The judici against the table of the parliament s'hagut d'aturar after Josep Costa, former vice president of the Parlament, has abandoned the judici.

It is not pot to celebrate sense ell perquè a més d'accusat, fa d'advocat de si mateix.

pic.twitter.com/rv8mdlGxmj

– Andrea Villoria (@andreajvilloria) October 6, 2022

“The law provides that the trial can be held without the accused but says nothing about the lawyer.

He could be appointed a court-appointed lawyer, but he has expressly opposed it, ”explained Carlos Mir to the rest of the parties in the room.

After a recess, the magistrate has communicated the court's decision to "continue the trial without him."

“Notwithstanding that he can return at any time.

Mr. Costa has the doors open.

We give him the chance to defend himself.”

After a recess, the court has decided to continue with the trial of the other three defendants: Roger Torrent, former president of the Board and current director of Empresa, Eusebi Campdepadrós and Adriana Delgado.

The Prosecutor's Office requests for the first two one year and eight months of disqualification with a fine of 30,000 euros.

For Adriana Delgado (ERC), she requests a lesser sentence since she only participated in one of the procedures (16 months of disqualification and a fine of 24,000 euros).

The prosecutor has branded this scene as "a lack of respect" and a "simple crude and childish strategy to suspend the trial", while the private prosecution, brought by Vox, has indicated that Costa has incurred procedural fraud.

Torrent's lawyer has defended Costa's action as "a coherent strategy" with his approach.

The president of the court, Carlos Mir, already refused on Wednesday, in the first session of the trial, to suspend the trial.

The Prosecutor's Office and the defenses had requested to postpone the oral hearing to give time to resolve the request, made by the prosecutor, to revoke the challenge of Judge Carlos Ramos, another second judge who was also removed from the court in August.

“We have an obligation to hold the trial.

No appeal can be lodged against that decision”, argued the magistrate.

The room has "the obligation" to carry it out, because he added, "it makes no sense to prolong and that it never ends."

That same day, the defenses invoked the "parliamentary inviolability" of the current deputy Roger Torrent and the three former deputies.

The rest of Thursday, the second day of the trial, four former members of the 2019 Parliamentary Bureau will testify together with two former senior lawyers and the former secretary of legal services of the Catalan Chamber.

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