Mas: trial just a “settling of scores”

Neither the threat of disqualification from office for a period of two years, nor the sentence to pay €4.9 million for the costs of 9-N have softened the political wit of former Catalan president Artur Mas, who yesterday responded forcefully and ingenuously to the sentence handed down by the Court of Accounts.

Accompanied by virtually all of the co-accused, Mas made it clear that the ruling was an act of “revenge” by the Spanish state for the “success” of 9-N. To make his point, he referred to the sentencing court as “the court for settling scores”.

In response to this latest absurd act by the Spanish state against the Catalan independence movement, the former president wanted to convey a message of strength, saying “They may hurt us, but we’re not afraid. We stand by all those who are taking the process forward”.

Mas attacked the legal foundation for the ruling, recalling that the accused were not condemned for misappropriation in the criminal trial and that the Generalitat, supposedly harmed by their management of 9-N, had not claimed a penny from them. The former president insisted that the aim of the participatory process was to meet the demands of the population regarding the political future of Catalonia. “We did a service to democracy and to Catalonia and we would do it again,” he said.

Former Education Minister Irene Rigau also gave her view on the ruling, stating that the purchase of 7,000 computers used for 9-N before being sent to schools “was done correctly”, following all the corresponding steps of the administrative process.

The Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural called on citizens to make contributions to the solidarity fund to help the accused pay part of the sanction.