The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, on Wednesday asked the National Court for “common sense” after it summoned former Catalan president Jordi Pujol to appear in person next Monday in Madrid. “I ask for common sense (seny), because in common sense one always finds the appropriate basis for justice,” Illa said at the celebration of Dia de les Esquadres, after revealing that last week he received a call from Pujol in which he apologized for not being able to attend the commemorative act for Pau Casals held last Monday in El Vendrell (Tarragona).
“I say this because El Vendrell is much closer than Madrid,” clarified the president of the Generalitat, to whom Pujol assured that “nothing would make him happier” than to attend the inauguration of the 150th anniversary of the cellist’s birth, but that he “was weak.” “I say this with all due respect, but I also wanted to be clear on this matter,” Illa concluded in his speech at the patron saint festival of the Catalan police, in which the Minister of Interior and Public Security, Núria Parlon, the Director General of the Police, Josep Lluís Trapero, and the Chief Commissioner of the Mossos, Miquel Esquiu, also participated.
The National Court yesterday summoned the former Catalan president to appear in person next Monday to be re-examined by a forensic doctor and to take his statement, if it considers that he is in a condition to face his trial for the hidden fortune in Andorra.
In a ruling, to which EFE had access, the court trying the Pujols for the origin of the hidden fortune set the statement of the former Catalan president for 09:30 next Monday, who “must appear personally” for the purpose of being examined by a forensic doctor. After the forensic examination, the court must decide if Pujol, 95 years old and for whom the Public Prosecutor’s Office is requesting 9 years in prison, is in a condition to be tried, in which case his statement would begin, although the accused would have the right not to answer all or some of the questions posed to him.
