Jordi Montull, right-hand man of the former president of the Palau de la Música Fèlix Millet and confessed looter of the musical institution, will have to spend the day in jail again. A Barcelona judge has knocked down the third degree that the Generalitat granted to Montull in September 2021 and that, since then, allowed him to return to prison only to sleep. The magistrate has admitted the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office and concludes that it is premature to grant Montull semi-liberty taking into account the length of his sentence (he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison) and the fact that he has not yet served a fourth part.
Montull, who was notified a few days ago that the Ministry of Justice had refused to grant him a pardon, will re-enter the second degree or ordinary regime, in which most prisoners serve their sentences. The judge’s resolution recalls that the Secretariat for Criminal Measures, Reintegration and Victim Care, which depends on the Department of Justice of the Generalitat, granted him the third degree despite the existence of reports against the Brians treatment board 2. Unanimously, the technicians proposed the second grade for Montull.
The prison surveillance judge clarifies that seven months passed between the treatment board’s report and the Justice’s decision. At that time, Montull underwent an individual rehabilitation program called “for i think” (Stop and think) to reflect on their behavior and avoid recidivism. Montull was convicted along with Fèlix Millet for the looting (more than 25 million euros) of the Palau de la Música. Both stole public and private funds from the emblematic Catalan institution and used them for personal purposes. The corruption lasted until 2009, when the Mossos d’Esquadra searched the Palau.
The prosecution opposed the third degree because it represents an “emptying of the sentence” and stressed that Montull has not yet paid the civil liability to which he was sentenced. Neither the prosecution nor the judge’s resolution mention the fact that a new criminal investigation has been opened against Montull for having concealed income from real estate rentals from the Barcelona Court, the body that executes the sentence of the palau case and tries to compensate the injured.
The defense argued that Montull has fulfilled his treatment program satisfactorily: he acknowledges the facts, “shows remorse” and “empathy towards the victims.” The convicted man also alluded to his state of health: at 79 years old, he is “afflicted with different pathologies” that his imprisonment has only aggravated. After being examined by the forensic doctor, the judge concludes that the “chronic and persistent” pathologies that he suffers from only affect his mobility. “The capacity for recidivism regarding the facts that motivated his conviction has not diminished,” the order states.
The judge concludes that “all the circumstances” do not concur, at least now, for the passage to the third degree, a decision that is “premature” since there are “negative variables”: above all, the “nature and seriousness of the acts committed” , the duration of the sentence and the short time of compliance. The resolution indicates that it will be necessary to observe the evolution of Montull in the exit permits that he enjoys, on a regular basis, once he has reached a quarter of his sentence.
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Montull entered prison in June 2020, once the Supreme Court issued a final judgment for the looting of the Palau. In addition to the conviction of the former financial administrator and Millet, the sentence considered proven that Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) received 6.6 million euros from Ferrovial in illegal commissions in exchange for the award of public works.
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