Independence camp split on suspended parliament speaker corruption case ahead of trial

Friday marks the first day of suspended parliament speaker Laura Borràs's trial in the Catalan High Court (TSJC) for allegedly awarding irregular contracts to a friend. 

The president of pro-independence Junts party faces up to six years in prison, accused of splitting contracts to avoid tenders during her time as the director of the Institute of Catalan Letters (ILC), a public body in charge of promoting Catalan literature, before she became parliament speaker in 2021.

Borràs could also be barred from office for 21 years and fined €144,000, as per the public prosecutor’s request, which was made public in July 2022, a few days before the parliament suspended her from her position in late July.

The trial is set to last until March 1, with the first day focused on the preliminary judgments. There will be a week gap until her cross-examination is expected to take place in the week starting on February 20. Overall, there will be seven different sessions during the trial.

Pro-independence groups split on supporting Borràs

Catalan politics has seen many court cases during the last years relating to the organization of the independence referendums, one that took place in November 2014 and one organized in October 2017. 

During this time, many politicians and civil society groups supported the person facing trial, accompanying them to the doorsteps of the courthouse regardless of party allegiance.

But Friday marks a break with this tradition of unity as some pro-independence parties will not join the rally in support of Laura Borràs.

The Catalan minority government, formed only by left-wing pro-independence Esquerra Republicana since Junts decided to leave the cabinet, will not attend the supporting event, as confirmed by the executive's spokesperson.

"We believe that the government should not be there, and we will not be there," Patrícia Plaja said after the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Esquerra also confirmed that they would not be showing their support as "it is not a court case for repression" but because of "mala praxis or mishandling public funds."

"This case does not have any relation to the ones regarding the October 1, 2017 independence referendum, or the fight for independence," Marta Vilalta, the ERC spokesperson, said during a press conference this week.

This stance is shared with the far-left CUP party, which will not accompany Borràs to the courthouse on Friday either. For them, the case also has to do with bad professional practice and nothing to do with the independence push.

Meanwhile, those who will show their support for the suspended parliament speaker on her first day of the trial are members of Junts and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) civil-society group. AMI, another group in favor of independence, has confirmed they will not attend the support event, while Òmnium Cultural has not announced where they stand yet.

They believe the politician is "not enjoying a fair judicial process" as "Spain has intentionally leaked parts of the judicial case to media outlets to violate the presumption of innocence."

Deal with public prosecutor against Borràs

Laura Borràs was indicted on June 29, 2022 by the TSJC for supposedly favoring a friend in alleged irregular contracts in what should have been put to a public tender. 

Now, this friend, an IT professional, is currently negotiating a deal with the public prosecutor incriminating himself and the politician to avoid imprisonment. He faces six years in jail and a €72,000 fine.

Both are accused of administrative fraud, although the judge has also accused Borràs of an administrative breach of official duty, falsification of a commercial document, and misuse of public funds. However, the public prosecutor did not accuse Borràs of misuse of public funds as there are no documents certifying that the suspended parliament speaker paid an additional amount for the requested work.

Accused of splitting contracts to avoid tenders

Between March 2013 and February 2017, the ILC awarded, "through its director," 18 minor contracts related to its website, for a total value of €330,000, in which Borràs "intervened", "proposing and awarding the contract, approving the expenditure, certifying the execution of the service, issuing the corresponding invoice and finally authorizing the payment," according to the judge's decree published on March 14, 2022.

Of these contracts, six were awarded to Isaías Herrero, for a total of €112,500, and one to Andreu P.M., for €20,050. Both men are also charged. Six contracts were also awarded to Xarxa Integral for €101,035 and three to Freelance for €54,437, two groups Isaías Herrero was a member of.

The contracts amounted to a total of €330,000, of which the ILC paid out €309,000 in the end. 

Shortly after being appointed director of the ILC, Borràs introduced Isaías Herrero to the staff as head of the website. The two exchanged emails, according to the judge, about invoices and contracts, concluding that the same vendor could not file invoices for different items in the same year and that they, therefore, had to "knock on doors" to bill different names and to avoid exceeding the €18,000 maximum for minor contracts.

At the time, public contracts in Catalonia over €18,000 had to be put to tender. The court alleges that Borràs fraudulently split a larger payment into smaller contracts in order to be able to choose who would be awarded the work, and to avoid a public tender process.