The defence lawyer Gonzalo Boye has asked Spain's Court of Accounts that, in the trial over responsibility for public spending on Catalonia's 1st October referendum and by its foreign affairs department, the court hear testimony from Carles Puigdemont, as the highest office holder in foreign affairs, as well as former Spanish treasury minister, Cristóbal Montoro, who - he recalled - told Congress that there was no irregular spending in the Catalan government accounts for 2017. In a preliminary hearing for the trial, held this Friday in Madrid, Boye had earlier requested that the procedure should be halted so that the European parliamentary immunity of Puigdemont and former ministers Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, all of them MEPs, would not be violated. The Court of Accounts councillor, Elena Hernáez, in charge of the case, refused to suspend the procedure over the immunity issue. However, she did accept that former Catalan president Puigdemont could testify in the trial as a witness, while refusing to allow ex-minister Montoro to do so.
The councillor - not a judge, as the Spanish auditing tribunal is not a full court - accepted the option of Puigdemont appearing to testify because other lawyers also requested it, as, in civil proceedings, it cannot be requested by the lawyer of the defendant himself. For now, it has not been revealed how he will do so; it is expected to be by videoconference, despite the fact that the councillor has, indirectly, invited him to come to the court. She also agreed, also at Boye's request, to hear a declaration from the Spanish state accounts comptroller, Luisa Lamela, who audited the Cataln government accounts in 2017.
Report on Catalan government intervention
Today's hearing was a preliminary step to prepare the trial against 36 officials from the Catalan governments of Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, from whom the repayment of 3.2 million euros is demanded by public prosecutor (5.3 million euros, by the private prosecution of Sociedad Civil Catalana) for spending on the 2017 independence referendum and the promotion of Catalonia abroad. Defence lawyers affirm that the damage caused has not been proven, as the prosecutor asserts. In addition, the lawyers appealed against the "defencelessness" of the defendants given that the auditing tribunal is to judge them for alleged accounting responsibility over expenses for which they have already been judged in a criminal court (or in some cases, for which they are still facing a criminal accusation), and they maintain that a person cannot be judged twice for the same actions.
The hearing ended at 2pm, with the majority of lawyers defending those charged from the ERC and Junts parties having requested a report from the Catalan government auditors to certify the expenses on the 2017 referendum and foreign affairs that have not been paid, despite the provision for such spending having been created. This category included some large items, such as the 1 million euros which was to be spent at mail firm Unipost, an item that the public prosecutor already removed from its claim, which is now 3 million euros, but not Sociedad Civil Catalana. After this hearing, all that remains is for the Court of Accounts councillor to set the date of the trial, once she has approved all the documents submitted.