Carles Puigdemont appeared yesterday before a Spanish court for the first time since he left Catalonia, in a case linked to the process. He did it by video conference and as a witness in the trial against the former interior minister Miquel Buch and his former escort Lluís Escolà. The ex-president made it clear that no policeman who has accompanied him to Belgium over the years has done so “in official capacity” and acknowledged that Escolà is a “good friend” but that he never acted as an escort . “He is a patriot and that is why he is in this trial. For having done a service to the country and for no other reason. I have seen him suffer a lot. I have seen him sacrifice his private life to be able to accompany me at times when the Spanish authorities ignored their duty to guarantee my protection”, he stated.
In the trial it is debated whether the former interior minister committed a crime of embezzlement of public funds and prevarication by hiring Puigdemont’s escort with a salary as an adviser in the department to continue to look after the former president’s security in Belgium , after the Spanish authorities denied him this prerogative that belonged to him as former president, he was once prosecuted by the Supreme Court. After her signing, the escort traveled continuously to Waterloo and allowed herself to be photographed next to the former president. However, the discussion is whether since he did not wear a plate, gun, or extendable baton, it can be considered that he was performing protection services.
Puigdemont defended that the security teams “carry weapons, bulletproof vests with the permission of the Spanish authorities and this has never happened”. He also denied that he ordered Councilor Buch to bring Escolà on board as an adviser, as the Prosecutor’s Office points out, indicating that there were several meetings in Waterloo to discuss this matter. The prosecutor’s indictment notes that Escolà was one of the cops who helped Puigdemont leave Spain in October 2017 “in a clandestine operation”. “When I left there was no court order against me”, he specified.
The president of the room, José Carlos Iglesias, intercepted any attempt to deepen this issue. “He has already said that he did not request Escolà’s help and that he accompanied him as a friend and that there was no court order against him not to be absent from the national territory”, he stressed. Then he intervened again indicating that Puigdemont “says that he has not received escort services outside of Spain and it is unnecessary to delve into questions that have already been answered. He knew many patriotic people, who are his friends and who were with him. He has made it very clear”.
Puigdemont appeared in a courtroom accompanied by two Belgian judicial secretaries who demanded the presence of the translator in the Barcelona courtroom to comply with the Belgian procedure. The statement had to be delayed until an hour later a translator was found.
