The Public Prosecutor's Office has summoned the chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), Josep Lluís Trapero, for tomorrow Tuesday, El Nacional has learnt. The summons, which has arisen between the Spanish state and the Catalan government as a result of the celebration of the 1st October referendum, was communicated on Friday. The chief of the National Police Corps and the commander of the Civil Guard have also been summoned.
The Mossos appear in those summoned in the complaint issued by the Prosecutor's Office of the High Court of Catalonia (TSJC) against the Catalan government, as a result of the approval of the Law of the Referendum. The text of the complaint includes instructions to the different police corps, between them the Mossos, so that “they adopt the necessary measures to prevent the promotion, organisation and the celebration of the illegal referendum”.
Likewise, Trapero appears in the list of a thousand high ranking officials that the Official State Gazette (BOE) has published, and who are advised of the penal consequences if they allow the referendum to go ahead.
The uncertainty about what the answer of the Mossos will be regarding the summons is one of the aspects that most worries the Spanish government, which has activated strong pressure upon the police against the organisation of the vote.
Trapero has achieved a strong social projection as a result of the leading role he assumed in the public explanation regarding the investigation of the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. The success of the Catalan police responding to those attacks resulted in the Mossos and emergency services being rewarded with the Medal of the Catalan Parliament. The Mossos chief was responsible for collecting the award on Sunday from the president of the Chamber, Carme Forcadell, in an institutional act in which he represented in the name of all the agents that received the recognition.