Laura Borràs greets her lawyer Gonzalo Boye upon arrival at the Barcelona Court this Thursday. /
The former Ministers of Culture assure that no one in the Ministry warned them that irregularities were being committed in the ILC directed by the nationalist leader
Until now, the trial had not gone well for Laura Borràs. Not only the other two defendants, but most of the witnesses have charged her in the previous five days. She was cornered, waiting for her to give her version next Monday. On the sixth day of the trial, however, for the first time she has heard positive testimonies for her interests.
With the statements of the witnesses chosen by his defense, Borràs has breathed a little more relieved this Thursday. Accused of prevarication and document falsification, the former president of the Parliament faces six years in prison, if she is convicted, and would also be disqualified, for which she would definitively lose her position as deputy and president of the Catalan Chamber.
The witnesses chosen by his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, have given him some oxygen. The two former Ministers of Culture of the Generalitat, who held office while Borràs directed the institution of Catalan letters, have appeared. She was the director of this body, which was part of the structure of the Department of Culture. Both Ferran Mascarell, who signed her for the position in the ILC, and Santi Vila, who replaced Mascarell in the Government, have admitted that “nobody ever” from the ministry warned them during their terms that irregularities were being committed within of the ILC. General Intervention, they have said, did not detect anything that could raise suspicions that Borràs was handpicking awards to her friend Isaías Herrero, who rigged the contracts and divided them to avoid the contest, as the Prosecutor’s Office maintains.
Department officials declared days ago, especially the administrator, that they did not like what they saw, but instead the former counselors have specified this Thursday that no one warned them of irregular practices. This same version has been ratified by Oriol Ponsatí and Francesc Parcerisas, members of the ILC governing board during Borràs’s tenure.
To date, the trial was getting complicated for the former president of Parliament. Especially after the pact between the Prosecutor’s Office and the other two defendants, which led to both Herrero and Pujol incriminating the Junts leader. Some witnesses have accredited the confession made by one of the defendants, Isaías Herrero, who made “comparsa” budgets to be able to rig the awards of the institution of Catalan letters. Herrero blamed the former president of Parliament. She said not only that she was aware of these allegedly fraudulent practices, but that she instructed him to do the fixing.
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