The judge rejects that the Government accuses in the case of 3% because Junts is “heir” of Convergència

The judge prevents the appearance of the Government due to the presence in the Catalan Executive of Junts, heir party to Convergència. “In the Generalitat there are members of the political party directly heir to the political parties investigated in this case,” says the magistrate, citing the report by the anti-corruption prosecutor José Grinda, who had opposed Aragonès’ request, considering it “fictitious, of image and merely provoked by a political strategy”.

In addition, the instructor notes that, in his letter, the legal services of the Generalitat have not proven “the condition of offended” nor have they provided data to consider that the regional administration was harmed by the Triacom contracts. The National Court already expelled the Generalitat a year ago from the main cause of 3%, which deals with builders’ commissions in exchange for public works, not seeing compatible that the Government exercised the accusation against different positions that were part of the institution , like the former minister and former manager of Convergència Germà Gordó.

In the case of Triacom, furthermore, Aragonès called for the accusation to be brought forward, presenting the Government as harmed while those responsible for the Catalan public media denied in parliament any anomaly in the contracts between Triacom and TV3 under investigation. The director of TV3, Vicent Sanchis, asserted that the prices of the contracts were “normal, adequate and adjusted to the market”.

As revealed by an investigation by elDiario.es, the production company Triacom inflated the price of the programs it invoiced to TV3 by more than 50%. The investigators of the 3% case maintain that the amounts that Catalan television overpaid were later used to issue false invoices issued by companies related to Convergència and its leaders.

Specifically, the investigators are focused on the alleged illegal financing of the CDC through the electoral campaign of Artur Mas in 2010. The investigations begin with the first contracts of 2009 and extend throughout the presidency of Mas, who placed Brauli Duart at the head of the public media company. In that period the overprice with Triacom reached 60%.

The corrupt scheme of the 3% audiovisual would be the same that was already proven by the Justice in the Palau case, in which a businessman confessed that he gave the Palau de la Música false invoices worth 824,299 euros for services that were actually provided to the party in the 2004 general election campaign.

Prosecutor Rejection

The judge bases his ruling largely on the letter of the prosecutor José Grinda who had opposed the presence of the Government. “Mr. Aragonès is part of a government in which the Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) coalition is represented, in which the European Democratic Party (PDeCat) is present, which has the status of being investigated,” the fiscal.

Grinda emphasized that “after several steps of gibberish of acronyms and political parties and associations, the truth is that the political parties investigated here are either partners, or one of those that currently form part of the Generalitat de Catalunya.” For the prosecutor, the Generalitat’s request was “sparing in the exhibition of the legitimacy as harmed, orphan in the exhibition of the elements or parameters of a damage, and non-existent in terms of providing information on why the Generalitat de Catalunya ultimately, it is person against itself”.