Agent K47019K, despite his name, isn't a cyborg from some sci-fi story. He's a Spanish civil guard agent. A corporal. A middle-aged, short, even squat man with what's left of his hair close-cropped and a neatly-shaven beard... He presents himself at the Supreme Court in a dark suit and sky-blue shirt with a folder under his arm. He was listed to talk about the search of the house of the secretary general of the Catalan vice-presidency department, Josep Maria Jové, the documents found there and little else.
But when it comes to it, he turns out to be a veritable goldmine of information. A mine without end, responding to all the questions on any topic public prosecutor Javier Zaragoza asks him about. Catalan foreign relations, the referendum's international observers, adverts, invoices... The man was everywhere. And those places where he wasn't were explained to him by some colleague or other, because they're all a team. And it seems they're very good at sharing information.
The first defence protest came from Marina Roig, counsel for Jordi Cuixart, noting that the presiding judge, Manuel Marchena, has repeatedly told the defence that questions cannot go beyond the topics a given witness might have been summonsed to testify about.
Marchena replied that "the declaration of relevance is dynamic and a series of questions can lead to the relevance of others". "If, in light of the questioning, new elements arise, there is a linked relevance which justifies the other questions," he argued.
The lawyer had her protest recorded, however. Andreu Van den Eynde then did the same, arguing that the defences were only learning at that point about the witness's areas of knowledge as he hadn't testified during the investigation phase. Marchena made a theoretical digression back to a 19th century legal scholar and justice minister discussing procedure, concluding that a witness cannot be excluded because the investigating judge didn't call on them.
Agent K47019K could then continue with his enthusiastic narration, responding to the public prosecution. The protests were repeated. In fact, the corporal dismissed some of them himself.
Lawyers Jordi Pina and Mariano Bergés both made protests of their own at different points. Roig asked for the witness to limit himself to those actions he had participated in personally, a protest the judge accepted. But Pina brought it up again later when the witness was talking about a search in Terrassa he wasn't present at.
A single, unimportant question from the private prosecution brought by far-right party Vox ended the morning session. The other prosecutions quickly moved to leave, the defendants to talk with their lawyers. As the corporal was walking out, only Vox's lawyers remained in their seats. Their eyes met and there was a slight, almost imperceptible raising of the eyebrows in greeting.