The defenses of Marta Rovira, Marta Molina, Oriol Soler, Oleguer Serra and Xavier Vendrell, from ERC, and Josep Maria Alay, from Junts, have presented this Wednesday a joint brief before the Supreme Court to inform it of the alleged irregularities committed by the judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón in the Tsunami case. The document indicates that the magistrate issued the first extension of the investigation out of time and this compromises the rest of the case. The first extension order was signed three days after the legal limit in order to continue with the investigation. As reported by the newspaper El País last weekend, the document was written to be signed on July 29, 2021 but was not signed until August 2, a procedural error that could lead to the annulment of the case. “This fact entails the invalidation of all investigation procedures agreed upon after said date (according to the jurisprudence of the same Supreme Court),” they point out in the letter.
The Supreme Court has on the table the reasoned statement sent by Judge García Castellón to rule on the competence to take on the Tsunami case considering that there are two qualified people who could be charged, the former president Carles Puigdemont and the ERC deputy. , Rubén Wagensberg. The lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Ángeles Sánchez Conde, issued an opinion last week in which she ruled out evidence of a crime of terrorism by both accused and demanded that the case return to the National Court. Three of those accused of the Tsunami also presented appeals for reform last week before the judge himself and an appeal before the criminal chamber of the National Court demanding the annulment of the entire case, arguing that the legal deadlines were not met.
Now, through this document, the defendants communicate this to the Supreme Court despite the fact that there is no procedure that establishes that the parties can make a statement at this stage in which the admission for processing of a reasoned statement must be resolved. However, they indicate that "it is essential to inform the court of this relevant procedural issue that directly affects the fundamental rights of those investigated." In the event that the investigation were invalidated as of July 2021, the accusations of Puigdemont and Wagensberg would be excluded which, in the opinion of those investigated, “would make it impossible to direct the procedure against them, and consequently, the Supreme Court would not could declare his competence to instruct or judge them.
