The Barcelona Court has summoned former president Jordi Pujol to testify next Monday in the trial that judges him and his children for the fortune they kept hidden in Andorra for years. Before that, however, the court has agreed that a forensic doctor examine him to determine if he can testify. The order, advanced by El Periódico, states that Pujol “must appear personally” to be examined at 9:30, for which a forensic expert from the Forensic Medical Clinic of the National Court has also been summoned. The order also urges the specialist to be present at the court, in San Fernando de Henares, “for the entire duration of Mr. Pujol Soley’s testimony.” After a final session with experts to be held this Friday, the testimony of the members of the Pujol family is scheduled for next week.
Last November, at the start of the trial, the National Court decided that the former president of the Generalitat, aged 95, should remain in the judicial process, but allowed him to follow the oral hearing from his home. At that time, the presiding judge, José Ricardo de la Prada, indicated that when he had to intervene “actively,” as is the case, the court itself would determine “whether he was in a condition to do so or not.” Hence the forensic examination that has been requested beforehand.
A forensic report, commissioned by the National Court, had concluded that Pujol was not “in physical or cognitive condition” to defend himself. Pujol himself made a brief intervention from his home via video conference, in which he admitted not being “very fit.”
The former president of the Generalitat and founder of Convergència Democràtica faces a nine-year prison sentence, according to the penalty requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, for the alleged crimes of illicit association and money laundering. The trial, however, focuses entirely on his eldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, who faces five possible crimes for which he risks a combined sentence of 29 years in prison. He will be the first to testify if his father is finally exempted.
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