The prosecutor of Supreme Court Álvaro Redondo denies that his refusal to investigate Carles Puigdemont for terrorism in the high court was a consequence of some type of pressure from the state attorney general, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz. According to what he stated this Monday, his decision not to accept the case proposed by the judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón is prior to the meeting he held with the head of the Public Ministry last week. The state attorney general has also “flatly” denied having influenced Redondo’s decision.
Prosecutor Redondo is in charge of preparing a report in response to García Castellón’s request to send the case of Democratic Tsunami to the Supreme Court in order to charge Puigdemont. Several reports published in the media affirm that at first, Redondo proposed accepting the instructor’s reasoned presentation, but that after meeting García Ortiz he changed his mind.
However, the prosecutor has released a statement in which he assures that He proposed rejecting the magistrate’s request before meeting with García Ortiz and that he has not made the slightest suggestion in this regard. “The attorney general acknowledged this verbally, without giving me any instructions, and did not consider it necessary to receive, as I offered, and it was totally appropriate, even a copy of said draft,” Redondo explains.
However, the prosecutor acknowledges having prepared “a first internal draft, not a procedural document”, although he does not specify whether in that first writing he proposed accepting García Castellón’s exposition. Of course, “several days later” he made a “deep and exhaustive study of the complex facts reported” in the reasoned exposition and also analyzed the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court.
As a result of this study, he concluded that “the events did not specifically constitute a crime of terrorism.” All of this occurred, as he explains, before being received in a “brief hearing” by the attorney general, who “was aware” of the decision not to admit García Castellón’s reasoned statement and did not convey “any instructions” in this regard. .
The same day that Redondo met with García Ortiz “early in the morning”, the prosecutor held a meeting at 10:00 a.m. with his colleagues from the Criminal Court and it was at that moment when he informed them that his opinion was contrary. that of García Castellón.
García Ortiz denies having influenced the decision
The State Attorney General’s Office has released a statement parallel to the one signed by Álvaro Redondo. In the text, the Public Ministry “flatly” denies the information that states that the attorney general has influenced the decision adopted by the prosecutor of the Supreme Court. “The State Attorney General has respected and absolutely respects the freedom of discretion of prosecutor Álvaro Redondo in this case, and that of all prosecutors in any other,” reads the statement sent from number four Fortuny Street, in Madrid.
According to the document, the institution headed by Ortiz is going to “formally require the media that have disseminated information about the alleged pressure on prosecutor Álvaro Redondo to immediately rectify the information disseminatedwithout prejudice to exercising the actions that may be appropriate.”
