The Court of Barcelona has ordered the reopening of an investigation into the former Secretary General of the Diplocat Albert Royo for the expenses of the trip to Catalonia of eight European parliamentarians as observers of 9-N and for the production of twenty videos to promote the 2014 consultation.
In an order, the eighth section of the Barcelona Court upholds an appeal from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and orders the investigating judge to investigate Royo for these items, in addition to the expenses of the foreign promotion of the process that already motivated his imputation.
Royo is being investigated in Barcelona's examining court number 18 along with a dozen government officials -including former Minister Raül Romeva- for embezzling almost a million euros to internationalize the process through contracts and subsidies granted by hand and arbitrary.
The case stems from a complaint filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in the Barcelona courts and in which it also accused Royo of embezzlement for the expenses of 9N, but the investigating judge ruled out investigating him for those items, understanding that the facts would have prescribed.
The instructor also understood that Royo could not be accused of embezzlement for the expenses of the consultation, when the organizers of 9-N, including former Catalan president Artur Mas, were not convicted of that crime but only for disobedience.
The Prosecutor's Office, with the support of the State Attorney's Office, have appealed the investigator's decision and have managed to get the Court of Barcelona to agree with them: the court considers that the travel expenses of the eight European parliamentarians for the 9N, which amounted to 10,000 euros, have not expired since the budget item was approved on November 3, 2014.
Regarding the production cost of 20 videos that internationally promoted the 9N consultation and the right to decide -whose amount amounted to 58,358 euros-, the Court agrees with the Prosecutor's Office that what is relevant is not the purpose of these items but that they were contracted circumventing "the control mechanisms of public procurement".
