The former head of the Palau de la Música Fèlix Millet has refused to testify this Wednesday before the judge who is investigating him for hiding rental income so as not to pay the cultural entity for the embezzlement, after being transferred by ambulance from the prison hospital for his battered health condition.
According to judicial sources, Millet, sentenced to 9 years and eight months for the looting of the Palau, has appeared under investigation before the head of the trial court 12 of Barcelona accused of a crime of frustration of execution, for having seized rented properties with his back to justice.
The person investigated, to whom the Generalitat granted the third degree for "humanitarian" reasons but is still admitted to the Terrassa prison hospital (Barcelona) due to his delicate health, has arrived at the Barcelona courts in an ambulance, escorted by Mossos d'Esquadra .
Once he has appeared before the judge, he has remained silent without saying a word, until the magistrate has terminated the appearance, concluding that he was invoking his right not to testify.
In addition to Millet, his two daughters are being investigated in this case -convicted as participants in the embezzlement for profit but who could not be correctly cited as they were abroad-, as well as whoever was his right-hand man at the head of the Palau, Jordi Montull , his daughter, Gemma, and his wife.
This is the second case that has been opened against the former officials of the Palau for allegedly trying to circumvent their obligation to indemnify the cultural entity: Millet is being investigated by a court in Granollers (Barcelona) for the disappearance of assets seized from his home -a piano tail and some ivory fangs, among others- and Montull is already awaiting trial for hiding the income he earned from renting an embargoed farm.
The one who has declared this Wednesday as being investigated is Gemma Montull, former financial director of the Palau who was sentenced to four years in prison for the plunder although she managed to get the Court to suspend her entry into prison.
In his appearance, he has only agreed to answer the questions of his defense and the judge, before whom he has denied the facts with which he is accused and has maintained that the Court of Barcelona, in charge of the execution of the sentence of the Palau, was already aware that they had the rented properties.
He has thus followed the line of defense of his father, Jordi Montull, sentenced to seven years for embezzlement and who in his statement a few days ago before the judge maintained that he had not hidden the income from the rental from the Court or the Palau of seized properties and that these were duly declared in the personal income tax.
The Palau de la Música and the Orfeó Català have so far recovered only 12 of the 23 million euros of the plunder, six of them coming from Millet -whose property and real estate were seized-, almost 3 from his wife Marta Vallès, already deceased, 1.6 of Jordi Montull and almost 0.8 of Gemma Montull.
