Mayor Toni Rodríguez, former head of investigation for the Mossos, was the first witness to appear in the trial of former Interior Minister Miquel Buch and Lluís Escolà, Puigdemont's bodyguard who helped him flee to Belgium in October 2017. The mayor has confirmed the thesis of the Prosecutor's Office that the minister signed Escolà as an adviser to the department so that he could continue to exercise the protection of the former president abroad, either in Belgium or in Germany, despite the fact that he no longer had the right to do so because he had lost the status of authority when he was prosecuted by the Supreme Court.
The prosecution requests for Buch a sentence of six years in prison and 27 years of disqualification for embezzlement and prevarication and four and a half and 23 years of disqualification for the escort. In the trial, former president Carles Puigdemont will testify by videoconference from Belgium, at the request of the sergeant's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye.
Mayor Rodríguez recalled that it was the mosso himself who flaunted his work as Puigdemont's escort on social networks. "Apart from the fact that this was a problem for the police force, there are a couple of people who had gone to Belgium who do not feel comfortable with Lluís (Escolà) and they tell us that he is recruiting people to support the protection of Puigdemont" , has commented.
The Government wanted to provide the former president with an escort service abroad and the mayor recalled that the Government's spokesperson, Meritxell Budó, the minister Elsa Artadi and the deputy Jaume Alonso Cuevillas publicly stated this and even the minister Buch filed a petition to the Ministry of the Interior requesting it, a request that was denied.
Escolà, in November 2017, was relegated from the Mossos escort service after a file was opened for having helped Puigdemont flee to Belgium but he chained holidays, vacations to travel to Waterloo to protect the former president and when he When the holidays were exhausted, he asked to leave to be able to continue with his work. In July 2018, Buch appointed him a security advisor, a position for which he received 52,700 euros, and he no longer went to work in his new position but participated in the protection of the former president.
Rodríguez recalled that the escort himself published it on his social networks. “Escolà was very prolific on social networks and even more so when he became a consultant. He photographed where he was, made proclamations for independence, proclaimed that he was an active escort and that he was protecting the president. He also had all the networks open ”.
The former head of Criminal Investigation has also revealed that the head of the Mossos during 155, Ferran López, was pressured by the Government delegate in Girona, Albert Ballesta, who was Puigdemont's substitute in the Girona mayor's office, to grant him Escolà a leave of absence after his vacation days, free, ran out. The claim was dismissed. After Escolà's appointment as adviser, Rodríguez assures that “Escolà's dialogue was with the chief of staff, Pere Ferrer (current director of the Mossos) and Minister Buch.
