ECHR rejects ex-Catalan president's defamation claims against Spanish newspaper

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected former Catalan president Artur Mas's defamation claims against Spanish newspaper El Mundo. 

El Mundo accused him of collecting commissions and depositing them in bank accounts in Switzerland during the 2012 Catalan election campaign. 

The Strasbourg-based court considers that the fact that Mas opted only for the criminal procedure, rather than a civil procedure, to report the issue "deprived him of the possibility of repairing the damage" to his reputation, and that this option "limited the scope of evaluation by the Spanish courts." 

"The plaintiff has not been able to show that the state has not offered him sufficient protection and that there has been damage done to his reputation."

The information, later proven false, surrounding Mas's alleged Swiss bank accounts was published during an election campaign, and the former Catalan president believes he was subject to an orchestrated attempt by the Spanish government, with media outlets complicit also, of damaging his reputation in the lead up to the vote.

He also accused Spain of acting passively in investigating the case, something that was central to his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. 

The case reached the European courts in 2015, after the former president sued El Mundo for slander in 2012. A year later, the investigating judge dismissed the case, as did the Madrid High Court and the Constitutional Court, considering that the journalists acted "reasonably in verifying the veracity of the facts."

Mas then appealed to Strasbourg, claiming in court that the reports had been "revealed to be false" and "given their repercussions, they should have been checked by journalists."

After El Mundo's article, Mas's party, Convergència, began to drop in polls and ended up losing 12 seats – and not winning at least 6 with which he would have taken full control of parliament – forcing them to negotiate with other political groups to stay in power.

The supposed bank accounts in Switzerland the outlet talked about were never verified, as the supposed police report, unsigned and not dated, stated.

Alleged plots come to light through leaked audiotapes

In May 2022, Spanish newspaper El País published leaked tapes of a conversation between the former high-ranking police official José Manuel Villarejo – famous in Spain for several secret operations he took part in along with secret service agents – and the then-Spanish interior minister's head of office, Francisco Martínez, of the conservative People's Party.

According to the leaked conversation, the police official told Martínez that a businessman had claimed the family of Artur Mas's predecessor as head of the Catalan executive, Jordi Pujol, had opened an account in Switzerland and asked for €250,000 to reveal all details.

Villarejo laid out his plan to discredit pro-independence leaders as the right-hand man of the then interior minister for the conservative PP, Jorge Fernández Díaz, consented without stopping the plot.

The police officer also said he had spoken to a banker in Switzerland who could send them documents about the supposed bank accounts of a Foundation linked to the Pujol family. None of the documents were revealed and the full plan was never carried out, but the allegations published by El Mundo did impact the election.

"I am sure Spain's PM’s office knew about it. This cannot be organized by a ministry on its own," Mas said in an interview with RAC1 radio station when the leaked tapes came to light. "I will not say they stole the election from me, but it had a big impact on the final outcome."