Spain's National Audience has sent the lawyer Gonzalo Boye to trial for an alleged crime of money laundering, according to the Europa Press agency. The announcement comes virtually on the eve of a key EU court hearing for some of his clients, several of the exiled pro-independence Catalan politicians. Likewise, the Galician drug trafficker José Ramón Prado Bugallo, also known as Sito Miñanco, and 47 other individuals are being sent to trial for their alleged involvement in the same case for which Boye is accused, known as 'Operación Mito'.
The criminal chamber of the National Audience has confirmed the conclusion reached by the investigating judge in the case, María Tardón. As well as the 47 people, five legal entities will be on trial. Boye has been prosecuted by the judge for alleged money laundering in connection with his supposed participation in the operation to recover 889,620 euros that the police had confiscated from members of the Sito Miñanco organization at the Madrid Barajas airport. 'Operación Mito' was centred on a drug smuggling network allegedly directed by Sito Miñanco, which tried unsuccessfully to biring more than 4,000 kilos of cocaine into Spain in two different operations that were stopped by police who had been tracking the network since 2016.
What is Gonzalo Boye accused of?
In February 2017, police arrested couriers at the Madrid airport who had the large sum of money hidden in a suitcase, planning to move it to Colombia. Subsequently, according to the judge's account, the smugglers contacted Boye and another lawyer, Jesús Morán Castro, so that they could draw up documents justifying the legal origin of the money. Boye and two other lawyers will sit in the dock for their alleged involvement in drafting documents and bills of exchange to recover the money seized by the police.
In this context, the criminal chamber has dismissed Boye's request to close the case. "The indications that are described in the prosecution interlocutory imputed to the prosecuted Gonzalo Boye prevent the actions with respect to him of being dismissed", it stated. For his part, the lawyer has long accused the investigating judge, Maria Tardón, of "manifest enmity" against him. Boye submitted an appeal, backed by 4 legal associations, that the judge, closely connected to the People's Party (PP), had abused her office to achieve a prosecution of the lawyer who has defended the pro-independence Catalan leaders, as well as acting in the PP's Gurtel corruption case. However, the lawyer's appeals have been rejected and the case has move forward.
Prior to the trial, the chamber has agreed to the prosecutor's request and has sent all those prosecuted by the investigation judge to trial with one exception: that of Amr Lanjri Lahcinoui. The judge followed the criteria of the anticorruption prosecutor and decreed the dismissal of the case against this defendant.