Police at Government HQ
Court orders Civil Guard to Catalan Parliament, Ministry of Justice and Telecommunications Centre over charges of alleged illegal commissions
In unprecedented scenes yesterday morning, four squads of Civil Guard officers simultaneously arrived at the Palace of the Generalitat, the Catalan Parliament, the Ministry of Justice and the Telecommunications Information Centre (CTTI) to request information on the official agendas of the MP Germà Gordó in his previous positions as Government Secretary and Minister of Justice from 2010 to 2016, as the public prosecutor seeks to clarify his involvement in the case of the alleged 3% illegal commissions received by Convergència.
Despite the initial anger and confusion, judicial sources clarified that the agents were acting on the authority of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) judge, Carlos Ramos, who is investigating the case.
A statement by Carles Puigdemont’s government revealed that “under instructions of the Minister of the Presidency”, Jordi Turull, the agents were made to wait in a room before they were given part of the information they had requested. The same happened at the Justice Ministry and the Catalan Parliament. “The headquarters of the Government of Catalonia cannot be a place for media spectacles of any kind,” the Government statement added.
Gordó’s official agendas were not found anywhere. Yesterday’s legal requests were the final attempt to track the agendas down and find proof of meetings between the former Justice Minister and business representatives from Copisa, Oproler and Pasquina at times when public work tenders were awarded to those companies, as set out in agendas belonging to the representatives themselves.