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It's been one of the stories of the day in certain Spanish media spheres: leaked recordings of testimony by a protected witness - a jailed Andorran businessperson - published by right-wing digital newspaper Vozpópuli, and claiming that former Catalan president Jordi Pujol has a 100 million euro bank account in New Zealand. 

However, one of those incriminated in the leaked tapes is lawyer Gonzalo Boye. According to the Spanish newpaper, the law firm Boye Abogados has access to the New Zealand bank account where, allegedly, this fortune belonging to the Pujols - one of the holy grail questions for the Spanish right - is supposed to be hidden.

In a long Twitter thread, the lawyer, who acts as defence for both the exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and current president Quim Torra, not only denies any connection with this account and asserts that he doesn't know any member of the Pujol family, but also gives a chapter and verse account of how this information is, in his view, an operation by Spain's so-called state sewers.

With this phrase, he is referring to the dirty tricks brigade involving members of different Spanish police and civil service bodies, pursuing political goals by illegal means. Boye says the material leaked today shows the sewers are operating “at full capacity".

His starting point is to note that it's not the first time that protected witnesses have emerged from jail to give testimonies that incriminate him:  

"When [prisoner releases] are granted to incriminate me, there is a real 'pull effect'... the state sewers are still operating:

[Vozpopuli headline:] 'A witness admits carrying out *tasks* for the treasurer of the Convergència party and politicians close to [Jordi] Pujol' via @voz_populi"— Gonzalo Boye

"The most serious aspect is that a judge has accepted "veracity of his testimony to the point of ordering international investigation in a secret part of the case over which the secret has just been lifted" and all of this is charged to the public purse."

"The previous occasion was an alleged murderer and trafficker who was released after incriminating me, this time it's an Andorran businessman, an inmate at the Brians-2 prison, with 9 convictions for various crimes, including fraud." 

 

"I don't know any member of the Pujol family, I have never defended them in any legal procedure or advised them in any way ... in any case who cares about the truth if the objective is clear: to destroy me for doing the job I do."

"At the end of October [2019], based on the "voluntary" declaration of an alleged murderer and trafficker, the entry and search of my house and office were ordered, and 'Last November he asked prison officers is he could testify about the [Pujol] clan's hidden money.' "

 

"I read in the press that: "the investigating judge has lifted the secrecy on the material of this specific investigation, and has informed the parties about the statement of the protected witness, whose identity he has revealed"... it doesn't seem that he considers me a party because he hasn't informed me of anything."

 

"I will ask to appear before the judge and, in addition, I will exercise all the legal actions that we consider appropriate against the "witness" and those who have helped, urged, encouraged, advised or supported him to make these outrageous statements under oath."

"An old trick: use prisoners in exchange for benefits, so that they will be willing to testify about anything and it is not the first time that someone has invented non-existent accounts to dish up dirt and incriminate others ... "the first responses from the authorities of these countries have been negative."

"Every time we make important progress in Europe they return to the attack, in October it coincided with the initial appearances of @KRLS Puigdemont @toni_comin @ClaraPonsati and @LluisPuigGordi, now with the OEDE hearing of Lluis Puig himself ... all very crude but with a clear objective."

 

"The 'protected witness, who had already declared in prison before the police on November 14th' ... the police seem to be very interested in tarring me, in fact they already told my family that 'we are not going to stop until we see him behind bars.' "

"On October 21st the police entered my house and my office... on November 14th they were already looking for another prisoner to testify against me and on January 17th "unknown persons" assaulted my office... the sewers functioning at full capacity."

Boye considers that all this is an "old trick", that of using "prisoners, in exchange for benefits, to declare anything" with the aim of "dishing out dirt and incriminating" people, and attributes it all to a campaign against their activities in defence of the rights of pro-independence politicians.