Official says public media corporation designed referendum ad campaign

Catalonia's public media corporation (CCMA) designed the ad for the referendum campaign, a former government official told the Supreme Court on Wednesday, on day 16 of the trial of independence leaders.

However, Jaume Mestre, who was in charge of the Catalan government's public information department under the Carles Puigdemont executive in 2017, added that he does not know whether it was for free or not.

According to Mestre, he did not ask the CCMA to design the ad campaign for the October 1 independence referendum, which featured diverging train tracks, contradicting the version given by the head of the corporation. He denied knowing how the CCMA ended up in charge of the project. 

The official said he never had a meeting with the head of the corporation, Núria Llorach, about the referendum ad campaign. Yet, the prosecutor pointed out that Llorach had said the opposite in an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor asks Mestre be investigated for giving false testimony

After answering "I don't remember" to several questions, the judge warned Mestre that giving false testimony in court could lead to criminal charges.

At the end of the official's declaration, the prosecutor asked that Mestre be investigated for giving false testimony, which the judge said he would make a decision on once the trial is over.