Catalan Government to be present in ‘3%' corruption case

Catalan President Quim Torra has asked the director of the Legal Cabinet of the government, Francesc Esteve, that the Catalan government be present as a private prosecutor in the ‘3% case’ - a corruption case against former members of the now-defunct Convergència party. 

The so-called '3% case' refers to the structure set up to "illegally and covertly" finance the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) party founded by Jordi Pujol, which governed Catalonia almost continuously from 1980 to 2015 until it was refounded in 2016 into PDeCAT.

In July, a Catalan court proposed trying 32 individuals and 16 legal entities for criminal organization, fraud in public administrations, bribery, peddling influence, and money laundering as part of this corruption case.

"If there has been any misuse of public funds, we must get to the bottom of it," Catalan vice-president Pere Aragonès argued.

Torra said he wanted his executive to appear as a private prosecutor in the case "in order to access the investigation of the case and the summary." 

The leader of the Catalan government takes this step after the vice-president, Pere Aragonès, asked that they be present as a private prosecutor in the case and that Torra undertake the responsibility if it was determined that there was damage done to the Catalan treasury.

This first step of appearing is, according to Torra, "absolutely necessary for the legal services of the Catalan government to analyze the material of the case.”

Thus, according to a statement from the president, in the event that, "from an analysis of the proceedings carried out, it can be deduced that there has been damage to the Catalan government, a written indictment will be made."