Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on Thursday in Brussels.OLIVIER MATTHYS (EFE)
The appeal filed this Friday by the Prosecutor's Office of the National Court in the Tsunami Democràtic case, which rejects the summons of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont as a defendant and insists that it does not appreciate crimes of terrorism, includes criticism of the conclusions reached by the Civil Guard and Judge Manuel García-Castellón on the movement that instigated the protests that took place in Catalonia after the Supreme Court ruling that convicted the leaders of the Catalan independence bid in October 2019. These are the main ones:
"No hierarchies, no distribution of functions." Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Carballo rules out that, during the four years that the investigation has lasted, evidence has been found that proves the existence of a "criminal organization or group" behind Tsunami: "Neither hierarchies, nor distribution of functions among those investigated, nor the existence of a governing body, nor the concerted perpetration of different criminal acts have been accredited. In short, there is no union of persons or the commission of offences in concert in a number of more than two," reads the appeal sent by the Public Prosecutor's Office to the Criminal Chamber of the National High Court.
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The Prosecutor's Office considers the evidence to charge Puigdemont in the 'Democratic Tsunami case' "insufficient"
"No structure has been accredited." "There is talk of an alleged support structure in communicative, logistical, legal, economic and operational matters, but no data is given on the sources of proof of its existence, much less who would be responsible for acting in each of these divisions of work [...] Beyond the communiqués on Twitter and, finally, the [Tsunami] computer application, no structure has been accredited."
"Imputing violent acts." It is true that some of the acts echoed by this platform ended in serious disturbances and altercations, but there is not a single piece of information in the proceedings that allows the investigated to be attributed their favorable opinion to them, to the execution of violent acts against police forces or other actions, such as the destruction of urban furniture, and even less their inducement, cooperation or participation," the document states, adding: "It is not possible to attribute deaths, injuries or damages to any of the investigated persons."
The leader?" The existence of a managerial level cannot be sustained by the mere statement of one of the respondents, who refers to another by asking 'if the big boss knows a little about who I am...'. This is grossly inadequate. As are the references of the same investigated person about that 'the leader told them that they were willing': Without knowing who this leader is, nor is it clarified who the leader or boss was."
"Funding." "As for the financing of the movement, the data offered does not even reach the reach of an objective suspicion, since it is based on the statement of two spokespersons of Tsunami on Catalan public television who would allude to a 'resistance fund', without the identity of these spokespersons being known and even less their qualification to reliably sustain such demonstrations," Write down the resource. The latest report from the Guardia Civil attributed to an Italian citizen (Nicola Fabio Giulio Foglia) the offer of 6,000 Swiss francs, about 6,200 euros, to "buy food and water" for the demonstrators who went to the blockade of El Prat airport (Barcelona). However, the prosecutor adds: "It has not been possible to prove that this amount, or any other, was delivered at any time for this act or for another."
"Lack of motivation." Prosecutor Carballo criticizes that last Monday's order lacks a "general lack of motivation." Of the dozen defendants — including Marta Rovira, secretary general of ERC — the public prosecutor's office says the judge only devotes a "scarce" part to arguing Puigdemont's indictment.
Marta Rovira (ERC). "The actions attributed to him lack any criminal entity, beyond his sympathy or support for the Tsunami Democràtic platform."
Puigdemont (Junts). "Having examined the grounds of the contested decision, no conjecture can be established regarding the criminal responsibility in the present proceedings" of the former Catalan president, the appeal argues. The prosecutor minimizes the value of the intercepted messages to some defendants, which made references to Puigdemont; censures that, after four years of investigations, the magistrate now claims that the investigation is in an "initial phase"; and he qualifies, "at the very least", as "naïve" García-Castellón's move to offer the former president to voluntarily testify as a defendant, before sending a request to the European Parliament, of which the former head of the Government is a member.
No terrorism. The Prosecutor's Office maintains that, once sedition has been removed from the Penal Code, it only considers crimes of serious public disorder. It rules out that the facts can be considered terrorism and considers "insufficient" the arguments put forward by the magistrate to sustain it: "It does not substantiate such an assertion beyond setting out the content of the international instruments that define terrorism or, rather, establish the requirement of the legislative framework in which the countries that sign them must develop their criminal legislation."
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