The State Attorney's Office renounces accusing one of Junqueras' trusted men for 1-O and requests an attenuated sentence for another

The State Attorney's Office (the legal service of the central government) has presented this Tuesday its indictment against the two main leaders of ERC and former high-ranking officials of the Generalitat who are pending trial for the organization of the illegal independence referendum of 1-O 2017: Josep Maria Jové, leader of the Republicans in the Catalan Parliament, and Lluís Salvadó, current president of the Port of Barcelona.

Both were the trusted men of former vice president Oriol Junqueras at the height of the

, and are prosecuted for disobedience, prevarication, embezzlement and disclosure of secrets.

The Legal Profession, however, uses the reform of the Criminal Code agreed upon by the Government and ERC last December to request that the new crime of attenuated embezzlement be applied to Jové -requesting three and a half years in prison for him- and not to accuse him of any crime against Salvado

The assessment of the State Attorney's Office differs considerably from that made by the Prosecutor's Office, known on February 17.

In its letter, the Public Prosecutor requested seven years in prison for Jové,

of Junqueras, for an aggravated crime of embezzlement, in addition to prevarication and disobedience.

For Salvadó, who in 2017 was in charge of the Government's Treasury Secretariat, requested that the sentence be six years and three months in jail.

Both were arrested by the Civil Guard in September 2017, in the registry of the headquarters of the Vice Presidency of Economy in Barcelona, ​​and later released.

Since then they await trial along with another twenty high-ranking or ex-high-ranking officials of the Generalitat.

The Legal Profession also apparently clashes with the conclusion reached last February by the Supreme Court itself when it reviewed the sentences of Junqueras and the rest of those convicted of the process to adapt them to the changes in the Penal Code.

The Supreme Court then ruled that the embezzlement committed by Junqueras and the former councilors Dolors Bassa, Jordi Turull and Raül Romeva should continue to be punished with the highest penalties, thus ruling out that the new crime of attenuated embezzlement could be applied to them.

“It would be contrary to the most elementary legal logic to understand that whoever makes public funds their own incurs a penalty that can reach eight years in prison and whoever uses them for criminal or unlawful activity —in our case,

The State Attorney believes, on the contrary, that the attenuated figure of embezzlement can be applied to the case of Jové.

The maximum prison sentence in this modality is four years, and the letter requests three and a half years in jail, seven years of disqualification and a fine of 30,000 euros.

The text explains that, among other things, Jové ordered and authorized the expenses related to the logistics of the referendum voting points.

In the case of Salvadó, who has presided over the Port of Barcelona since last November, the State Attorney's Office has finally chosen to dismiss his accusation.

She does not see criminal indications in the investigation closed in 2021 by magistrate Maria Eugènia Alegret and who points to her as the person responsible for preparing the so-called State structures.

The magistrate had pointed to a possible crime of embezzlement for spending more than 1.2 million euros on computer changes that would supposedly facilitate tax work in an eventual independent Catalonia.

Disqualification for the Minister of Culture

The Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, who also worked in the economic Vice-presidency of Junqueras, is also prosecuted in the case.

The State Attorney's Office requests for her a year of disqualification for a crime of disobedience, since she ignored, she maintains, the warnings of the Constitutional Court about the prohibition of making any preparation for the 1-O vote.

The organization of the referendum was initially investigated by court 13 of Barcelona, ​​but it went to the Catalan high court due to the appraisal of Jové, Salvadó and Garriga (deputies and member of the Government).

ERC considers that the consideration made by the State Attorney "confirms that the interpretations made by other instances are arbitrary, tendentious and twisted", although it regrets the prison request for Jové.

Party sources have affirmed this Tuesday that "the judiciary continues to be kidnapped by the extreme right" and that "the repressive spirit against the independence movement" continues.

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