The former Minister of Interior Miquel Buch, this Wednesday upon his arrival at the Palace of Justice of Barcelona.David Zorrakino (Europa Press)
The mayor Antoni Rodríguez was, until he was removed in a fulminant way a year and a half ago, head of investigation of the Mossos d'Esquadra. As such, he led some of the most notorious cases against political leaders in Catalonia: the former president of the Parliament Laura Borràs (convicted of cutting contracts to favor a friend) and the former Minister of Interior Miquel Buch, who since this Wednesday sits on the bench of the accused for appointing an advisor to a Mosso that, in reality, he allegedly dedicated himself to escorting the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont in Belgium. Surrounded by his relatives and by the pro-independence parties, the former Junts counselor faces the Prosecutor's Office (which asks him for six years in prison and 27 years of disqualification for embezzlement and prevarication) and, also, the fang of the mayor, who in his statement as a witness has put him on the ropes.
In July 2018, after Puigdemont's flight to Belgium and the application of Article 155 of the Constitution, the Department of Interior signed the sargente of the Mossos d'Esquadra Lluís Escolà as an Interior advisor. He was in that position of trust until March 2019 and in that time he received more than 52,000 euros from the public coffers. The signing met all the formal requirements and was legal, Mayor Rodriguez has admitted. The appointment, however, was a cover for the real work entrusted to Escolà: to protect Puigdemont in his flight to Waterloo (Belgium). The mayor has admitted, to questions from the defense of the bodyguard, that he can not know what Escolà was doing at all times abroad, but has assumed that he took advantage of his position to act as protector of the former president after his flight from Spanish justice. As a necessary cooperator in the crimes, the bodyguard faces a somewhat lower request than Buch: four and a half years in prison and 23 years of disqualification.
Buch (Junts) has arrived this Wednesday at the Palace of Justice of Barcelona surrounded by representatives of his party, Junts, and also of Esquerra Republicana. The trial has started with the statement, as witnesses, of Mossos who participated in the investigation (such as Rodríguez) or who were part of the escort area of the Catalan police. To that unit had belonged, for many years, Escolà himself. The oral hearing has two key dates: Friday, when Puigdemont is scheduled to testify by videoconference and as a witness, and July 13, when it will be the turn of the two defendants.
Political interference
The former head of investigation has detailed that Escolà acted with "enormous autonomy" in the body, that he maintained a relationship of "great trust" with the former Catalan president for his independence tune, and that he was one of the people who helped him flee Spain on October 29, 2017. During the stage of 155, while he was on leave or off, Escolà already did escort work for Puigdemont that he disseminated through social networks, which generated enormous "discomfort" within the Mossos d'Esquadra, said the mayor. That mission was "greatly accentuated" after being appointed a position of trust by the Department of the Interior, then headed by Buch.
On the appointment, the former head of investigation has insisted that neither he nor his team found formal irregularities, although he has stressed that the process was closed extremely quickly. Rodríguez has counted, in line with the Prosecutor's Office, that there is no evidence that Escolà passed through his alleged office to act as an advisor or that he did, as such, any type of management. Escolà is credited with the preparation of 14 reports on security, but the mayor has expressed "serious doubts" about its authorship.
Rodríguez, who after his dismissal was sent as head of the police station of Gavà (Barcelona), has denounced alleged political interference to ensure that Puigdemont enjoyed protection abroad. When the former president was arrested in Germany in March 2018, the then director of Interior in Girona, Albert Ballesta – considered close to Puigdemont – called the head of the Mossos, Ferran López, to ask him "vehemently" that Escolà be granted a leave of absence. Lopez refused to accede to the request.
The defenses have insisted on the legality of the process and have tried to open fissures in the investigation of the Mossos, which they consider weak. To questions from Escolà's lawyer, Rodríguez has admitted that he could not know what Escolà was doing "every minute" in Belgium and, either, if he could have developed his task as a security adviser from abroad.
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