The first statements of the accused in the Democratic Tsunami case They have turned out to be very decaffeinated. Of the ten people investigated by the National Court for terrorism in the riots registered in Catalonia in 2019, only Marta Molina, secretary of Social Movements in ERC, appeared this Wednesday to testify by videoconference before the investigating magistrate, Manuel García. Castellon. Regarding the rest, three had already managed to postpone their summons – among them, the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, and Josep Lluís Alay, a friend of the former president Carles Puigdemont and head of his office in Waterloo (Belgium)—and the others (several of whom went abroad when they were charged) have not directly appeared in court, despite the judge’s requests.
The parties now remain pending what the instructor’s next moves will be; and some accusations are already being considered to request that a search and arrest warrant be issued against those who were supposed to appear in court this Wednesday and have not done so. Last week, one day after the Catalan elections of 12-M, García-Castellón summoned the ten people accused in the National Court to testify on May 22 (there are two others accused in the Supreme Court for this same case). Nine of them were ordered to appear by videoconference from Barcelona: Marta Rovira; Josep Lluís Alay; Martha Molina the businessmen Oriol Soler and Josep Campmajó; Xavier Vendrell, former counselor of the Generalitat and former leader of ERC; the journalist Jesús Rodríguez; Oleguer Serra, member of the board of directors of Òmnium; and Jaume Cabani, considered the treasurer of Tsunami. For the tenth, the Italian banker Nicola Flavio Giulio Foglia, an international cooperation order was issued to interrogate him in his country of origin.
However, the activation of all these subpoenas unleashed a wave of appeals from those investigated, who have tried to delay all statements. The judge only agreed to suspend sine die three appearances – those of Rovira, Alay and Soler – after their lawyers alleged that they had other previous professional commitments or medical problems. The rest of the interrogations, therefore, were still valid.
But only Molina sat down this Wednesday to testify – although remotely, by videoconference from Barcelona – before the magistrate. During a brief appearance in which she only responded to her lawyer’s questions, the accused insisted that she has never supported violent actions, and that she did not participate in the organization of Tsunami, the platform that encouraged protests against the sentence handed down. in 2019 by the Supreme Court against the political leaders of the processes. As detailed by several legal sources, Molina added that he learned about the existence of Tsunami through the media and that it was a “pacifist” movement.
“Marta has taken advantage of the right not to answer any questions, neither from the judge nor from the accusations. She has only answered questions from her defense. And, simply, we have contextualized the peaceful framework in which the protests called by Democratic Tsunami took place. Marta has responded that all the messages that Tsunami sent, which she saw through the media, were calls for non-violence, civil disobedience and the peaceful mobilization of citizens. And, therefore, she has defended that it was not a violent movement and much less a terrorist one,” explained Marina Roig, Molina’s lawyer, after her statement.
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On Tuesday, in a press conference, Marta Molina had stated: “I am aware that I can go to prison […] “I assume it, but the State must assume the consequences of having political prisoners in prison again.” However, after her appearance, no party has asked to adopt precautionary measures against her, according to several legal sources.
We will now have to see what happens with the other five defendants who were due to appear before the judge this Wednesday: Xavier Vendrell, Jaume Cabani, Oleguer Serra, Jesús Rodríguez and Josep Campmajó. These last three have moved to live in Switzerland and, in an interview with EL PAÍS, they already hinted that they would ignore the call from Judge Manuel García-Castellón.
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