Hazte Oír has requested the opening of an oral trial against the 3 agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra investigated for the escape of the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, after his visit to Barcelona on August 8, 2024. The accusation primarily requests 2 years of disqualification for each of them or, alternatively, sentences of 3 years in prison.
According to the indictment document accessed by Europa Press, the association claims that a sentence of 2 years of disqualification should be imposed on them as presumed responsible for a crime of omission of the duty to pursue crimes, as defined in article 408 of the Penal Code. Subsidiarily, it proposes 3 years of imprisonment and 10 years of absolute disqualification for a presumed crime of concealment, provided for in article 451.3 of the Penal Code.
In the document, Hazte Oír argues that the 3 mossos --one was on vacation, another on medical leave, and the third was enjoying a personal leave on the day of the events-- knew "the existence and validity" of the arrest warrant against Puigdemont, who is being prosecuted in absentia by the Supreme Court for a crime of misappropriation of public funds.
The accusation maintains that, from 8:55 a.m., when Puigdemont appeared at the Passatge de Sant Benet, next to Trafalgar street, accompanied by the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, he was already "escorted" by the three indicated mossos, who were dressed in civilian clothes and wore identical blue baseball caps.
The entity describes that the agents surrounded the former president forming a "capsule," a typical arrangement of protection devices for personalities, and that one of them even held him by the arm to facilitate his passage among the people who were crowding in the area at that time.
After delivering a brief speech at Arc de Triomf, and while the attendees were urged over the loudspeaker to organize a procession to head to the Parlament, an action that Hazte Oír qualifies as a "distraction maneuver," a vehicle that the partner of one of the accused had presumably left in an underground parking lot the day before picked up Puigdemont and Turull. Previously, another of the implicated would have cut the ties of a fence to clear their way.
According to the accusation, the investigated, "previously agreed upon," distributed functions and took advantage of their training, techniques, and knowledge as police agents to design a plan aimed at protecting Puigdemont's public appearance and ensuring his subsequent escape, thus avoiding the execution of the arrest warrant issued by the Supreme Court.
List of requested witnesses
As witnesses, the association demands the appearance of the mosso assigned to the General Information Police Station who witnessed Puigdemont's departure and identified the investigated, although he could not communicate it by radio, as well as that of his superior and other agents of the force who analyzed the images and drafted reports on the escape.
Hazte Oír also requests that Turull testify, who at that time was traveling in the car with Puigdemont; the then president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès; the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull; the former Minister of Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena; the director general of Mossos at that time, Pere Ferrer, and the former chief commissioner of Mossos, Eduard Sallent, among other positions.
Likewise, the accusation requests the testimony of Puigdemont and the then director general of Coordination and Studies of the Secretary of State for Security, José Antonio Rodríguez.