The fugitive Carles Puigdemont He asked the Court of Auditors to cancel the bail of 2,085,507.80 euros that he requires, claiming that he enjoys “immunity as a MEP.” Sources of the supervisory body consulted by OKDIARIO are blunt: “He has no immunity to pay a debt”. And they add: “He has to answer for his alleged accounting responsibility.” The fugitive Puigdemont tried to evade the bail that this body claims for the irregular use of public funds used in the international projection of the separatist process.
European Parliament sources, in line with the Court of Auditors, tell this newspaper that “the accounting prosecution and its judicial control of this auditing body is independent, which can be appealed before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court.” And, they emphasize, immunity proceeds only to arbitrary arrests (without flagrante delicto or without supplication) in no case does it protect the MEP from a civil lawsuit -This is the non-payment of a debt- or an administrative demand, that is, of accounting irregularities. “If the immunity protected Puigdemont from any jurisdiction, it would be like the inviolability of the King and he could stop paying the rent in Waterloo (Belgium) without his landlord being able to sue him,” they conclude.
According to the European Parliament, parliamentary immunity is not a personal privilege of Members, but rather ‘guarantees that a Member can freely exercise their mandate without being the object of arbitrary political persecution ”. Therefore, MEPs cannot be investigated, detained or prosecuted for the opinions expressed or the votes cast by them as MEPs.
But this is far from the situation that affects the independentista Puigdemont. In his case, the Court of Auditors demands 34 former positions of the Generalitat to pay a guarantee of 5.4 million euros for specific concepts that they approved when they were in their respective positions in the Government. These separatists diverted public funds to the so-called ‘Catalan embassies’ and the Consell de la Diplomacia Pública de Catalunya known as Diplocat.
In addition, other sources in Brussels consulted by OKDIARIO point out that immunity protects MEPs from the actions carried out in the exercise of their functions, that is, during the mandate. Therefore, this measure is not retroactive. It should be remembered that in the Puigdemont procedure, the instructor Margarita Mariscal de Gante claims a bond for events that occurred before the former Catalan president obtained his seat as an MEP.
Dilate the process
Puigdemont’s lawyer seeks with this strategy to delay the procedure, according to sources consulted. In the letter, the lawyer points out to the judge and reproaches her: «The statement made by the examining delegate during the liquidation act that said immunity extends only to criminal proceedings, not dealing with the liquidation of one is, therefore, contrary to right ».
The defense of the fugitive understands that the examiner of the supervisory body should have requested a request in the European Parliament and points out that “something different is that the examining delegate does not want to do it because she does not your procedure subjected to any type of scrutiny ». He assures that it is an “unconstitutional” measure and takes the opportunity to threaten the instructor by stating that he reserves “the corresponding legal actions both here and in those jurisdictions where these actions cause their effects ”.
This Wednesday the deadline to pay the deposit expired and the Minister of Economy of the Generalitat, Jaume Giró, has announced that the Generalitat will turn to the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) to cover them. The jurists have warned that with this action the Government could be committing a crime of embezzlement and prevarication.
