The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Catalonia has filed a complaint with the Catalan High Court of Justice against the president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, vice president Oriol Junqueras and the other 12 cabinet members of the Catalan government for abuse of power, disobedience and misappropriation of public funds – the last of these being punishable with prison sentences. Specifically, these accusations are a response to the Catalan government's formal decree calling the October 1st referendum as well as the supplementary measures needed to carry out the vote. The decree calling the referendum was jointly signed by all members of the government, while the additional measures bear only the names of Puigdemont and Junqueras.
Further charges have been presented against the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, and some members of the Parliament's Presiding Committee: Lluís Guinó, Anna Simó and Ramona Barrufet, of the governing pro-independence coalition, as well as left-wing MP Joan Josep Nuet. They are accused of allowing the parliamentary vote on the referendum law to go ahead after the Constitutional Court had prohibited it. These two criminal complaints were announced by the state’s Public Prosecutor, José Manuel Maza.
The Public Prosecutor's Office has asked in writing for several precautionary measures to be taken against Puigdemont and the other members of the government. In the first place, it has demanded the closure or blockage of the Catalan government's website Garanties.cat and the email address https://connectat.voluntariat.gencat.cat/referendum2017, on the grounds that they give "legal coverage and normality to the celebration of a secessionist referendum".
Institutional campaigns
The Prosecutor has also requested that warnings be given to the directors of all Catalonia-based media organizations - both print and audiovisual, public and private - that they should prevent the inclusion of "any kind of institutional advertising or propaganda about the referendum" in their output. Moreover, the measure asks for these media outlets to be reminded of the measures that are possible to enforce their financial responsibility for compliance, including payment of bonds or the seizure of property.
Confiscation of ballot boxes
In addition, the Public Prosecutor's Office requires that the Spanish police and security forces with competence in enforcement of judicial rulings, that is, the Civil Guard, National Police and Mossos d'Esquadra should be told to prevent "the promotion, organization and celebration of the illegal referendum". The instructions state that these police forces "will need to confiscate the objects or instruments destined to this purpose, seizing such items as ballot boxes, electoral envelopes, instruction manuals for polling station workers, electoral printed matter, IT-related elements and other similar items".