Judge Aguirre opens a new case for the Russian ‘procés’ plot to investigate Puigdemont for treason, a crime that is not covered by the amnesty

Barcelona judge Joaquín Aguirre is not willing to throw in the towel in the investigation into the so-called “Russian plot” of the processes, the alleged interference of personalities close to the Kremlin in the independence process in Catalonia. Three weeks after the Barcelona Court ordered him to end the investigation of the case, the veteran magistrate believes he has found a way to keep it alive: he has opened a new separate piece that puts the target on the former president Carles Puigdemont and 12 other people for treason, a crime that, in some cases, is excluded from the amnesty law.

The judge has ordered that, once “the essential part” of the investigation has been concluded, a reasoned statement be submitted so that the competent court can deal with the two people who have the status of authorized persons: the former president and candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, who fled from Spanish justice due to 1-O, and the Junts per Catalunya deputy Francesc de Dalmases. Another 11 people already have the status of being investigated, also for embezzlement and treason. In addition to the former president of the Generalitat Artur Mas, there are above all people from Puigdemont’s trusted circle: his lawyer, Gonzalo Boye; his advisor, Josep Lluís Alay; the former head of international relations at CDC, Víctor Terradellas; the former member of the Government Elsa Artadi.

The list is completed by businessmen, activists and even journalists who supposedly knew or participated in meetings between the Catalan Executive and people close to the Russian Government, always according to the judge’s thesis. Among the latter is the popular Carles Porta, responsible for Crimsstar program of true crime in Catalonia. The judge has also given a period of time (only two days) to the parties to rule on whether the facts are susceptible to amnesty.

Aguirre’s move is unexpected because, just three weeks ago, the Barcelona Court ordered him to put an end to the investigation that was already open and decide, without further delay, whether to archive it or send it to trial. The judge began to investigate the Russian plot of the processes in 2019, by opening a separate piece (called “piece two”) of the voloh case, which investigates allegedly irregular businesses surrounding the independence process. The Civil Guard gave him some audio files found on Víctor Terradellas’s mobile phone, in which he spoke with other people about Russia’s alleged offers (including the sending of “10,000 soldiers”) during the fall of 2017 to guarantee an eventual secession of Catalonia.

That investigation dragged on in time and was extended, once again, in August 2023. But the magistrates, at the request of the defenses and the Prosecutor’s Office itself, said enough was enough. They recalled that the case had languished for many months, without significant progress. And declared that extension null and void. That meant, among other things, that everything taught from that moment on is null and void. Including the order that Aguirre issued last January, in the midst of negotiations for the amnesty law, in which he mentioned for the first time the possibility that the facts investigated in the Russian plot amounted to a crime of treason.

Treason is excluded from the amnesty law, but only in very specific cases: when it has posed “an effective and real threat” and has entailed the “effective use of force” against the territorial integrity of Spain. The reading of the case and the sources consulted in this regard agree that none of this happened, not even accepting the judge’s hypothesis that a plot existed. However, the decision opened a new front (in addition to the Democratic Tsunami cause for terrorism) to prevent Puigdemont from returning to Spain and benefiting from the grace measure.

Aguirre dedicates part of the 56 pages of the order to justify why he feels entitled to open a separate piece on a matter (Russian interference) that in reality he had been investigating for five years. He maintains that in January 2024 he ordered a series of “investigative procedures” that he could not carry out because the Barcelona Court took too long to resolve his recusal. The defense of Josep Lluís Alay (Puigdemont’s advisor) had asked to remove the judge after he spoke about the case in an interview with a German public television channel.

The “historical importance” for the EU

The decision of the Barcelona Court that overturned the extension and ordered him not to investigate further “led to a dismissal” due to “the lack of sufficient instruction.” An end to the road that Aguirre does not accept, as can be seen from his order, for a longer-range commitment. “For reasons of equity and justice, as well as those of historical importance for the European Union, this judge has been forced to think of an alternative solution to the technical-procedural objections raised” by the judges. The head of the investigating court number 1 of Barcelona hides himself, among other things, in a resolution of the European Parliament that mentioned Russian interference in Catalonia and gave as an indication of this… the case opened by the magistrate.

In an atypical report that at times seems like an essay (with reflections on the so-called “hybrid war”, Russia’s role on the world stage and abundant bibliographical citations), Aguirre concludes that Puigdemont and his collaborators “would have facilitated the infiltration of people from Russian origin in Spanish territory with the aim of influencing financial structures and carrying out disinformation, destabilization and alteration of social peace activities.” The judge believes “beyond any doubt that Catalonia was the object of a campaign of information confrontation during the years of the processes” that called into question “the constitutional order” with the indispensable collaboration of local politicians, an “internal subversive element” of an operation that, if it had been successfully completed, would have allowed Russia to have “a back door” to destabilize the European Union.

The judge cites the meetings that, in 2017 and 2018, people from Puigdemont’s circle (Alay, Terradellas) and himself former president At some point, they met with “individuals close to the Russian intelligence services and the Government of the Russian Federation.” The resolution contains analysis and opinions that go beyond the strictly criminal, as when it states that “Artur Mas chose the Catalan identity claim as a means to promote his permanence in power.” Or when he criticizes that the Russian-Catalan connections have been the subject of “undeserved discredit by the Spanish left and the nationalist parties.”

In a statement, Mas has stated that he “cannot believe” the “contorted plot” of the order and “the feverish imagination” used to open this new case. “It seems to be manufactured ex novo to avoid the effects of the amnesty law with no other basis than pure fabrication,” he stated, pointing out that decisions of this caliber discredit the judicial system and undermine its “credibility” already “to a minimum.” Jordi Turull, general secretary of Junts, has reacted to Judge Aguirre’s decision: “They just want revenge, without any type of scruples or shame.” Turull has called the cause “non-existent” and an “invented fantasy.” Lawyer Gonzalo Boye has been even more critical and has said that the judge’s resolution, in which he is investigated, is a “delirium” resulting from the consumption of “psychotropic drugs” at certain “ages and hours.”

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