Jorge Fernández Díaz and Mariano Rajoy, in one file, Europa Press
An Andorran judge has informed former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz that they are under investigation over a lawsuit alleging pressure on the Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) to obtain information from politicians Catalans during the processes.
The investigation stems from a complaint, admitted for processing in 2020, filed by the Institut de Drets Humans d’Andorra, Drets and the former president of the BPA, Higini Cierco, for the so-called Operation Catalonia and the former Secretary of State for the Interior Minister Francisco Martínez and former police director Ignacio Cosidó, as reported by the complainant bodies.
Andorra’s Investigative Department No. 2 Stéphanie Garcia Garcia has now issued Legal Aid Commissions to refer the complaint to the accused and gives them fifteen days to appoint a lawyer and warns them that if they do not, one will be appointed ex officio, the institute and drets have said in a statement. The judge also agreed to resend MLA requests to former National Police Operational Deputy Director (DAO) Eugenio Pino and former Chief Inspector Bonifacio Diez, who have already been summoned but failed to appear.
The lawsuit, initially directed against members of the so-called “Patriotic Police,” was later expanded to include new complainants, including the Pujol family. The charge of coercion, threats, extortion, extortion and forged documents accuses Rajoy and Fernández Díaz of having dispatched police officers to put pressure on those in charge of the BPA to obtain information on the bank accounts of Catalan politicians in the principality, including the former President Artur Mas, the ERC leader Oriol Junqueras or the Pujol family.
The complaint alleges that the Spanish government blackmailed those responsible for BPA and threatened to force the closure of the company and its Spanish subsidiary Banco Madrid (both already closed) if they failed to provide the required information. According to the complainants, the Rajoy government allegedly sent false information about BPA to the United States Financial Crimes Control Agency while “intimidating” the Andorran government and its ministers during an official visit to the Principality in January 2015 to speed up the country’s shutdown Unit.
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