April 2, Day 25 of Trial
Head of information of the Spanish National police in Catalonia during the October 1st independence referendum: “The demonstrators [voters] attacked the police officers who were carrying out a raid on the CUP party headquarters on September 20th, 2017.”
According to the officer’s testimony, the Spanish police were “surrounded” and forced to fire “blank shots in order to get out.” He also affirmed that the operation at the CUP party HQ was carried out on instructions of the public prosecutor after “propaganda” for the October 1st referendum had been detected there.
The officer said “72 Spanish police officers were injured” during the operation to stop the referendum on October 1st, 2017, and he accused the Catalan police of being “passive,” and even “hindering” their work.
April 3, Day 26 of Trial
The second-in-command of the Catalan police during the independence referendum, Ferran López: “Puigdemont pledged to declare independence if there were ‘incidents’ during the 2017 independence referendum.”
López also affirmed that “the Catalan police never collaborated either in the preparation or in the execution of the referendum.” “In fact, the Mossos leadership expressed concern to [President] Puigdemont about the referendum day and the police chief Trapero asked Catalan government leaders to comply with the judicial orders and not to hold the referendum.”
López also assured that Mossos (Catalan police) officers were deployed in 2,300 polling stations during the referendum. “Mossos d’Esquadra officers seized 423 ballot boxes, 90,000 ballot papers, and 60,000 envelopes,” added López.
April 4, Day 27 of Trial
Former deputy chief of the Mossos (Catalan police) Juan Carlos Molinero: “The Catalan police never carried out follow-ups on [Spanish] police forces during the referendum.”
Molinero insisted that the various police forces involved in the operation to stop the independence referendum on October 1st, 2017, held “equal responsibilities.” He also said that Diego Pérez de los Cobos, the Spanish Civil Guard colonel in charge of coordinating all police forces during the referendum, ”never objected the Mossos operation planned for the referendum.”
Molinero confirmed what the second-in-command of the Catalan police during the independence referendum Ferran López said the day before: “[President] Puigdemont said he would declare independence if there was an extreme situation or a tragedy during the vote.”
Molinero also said that former interior minister Joaquim Forn told the leadership of the Mossos that he “would not meddle in the police operation during the October 1st independence referendum.”
Additional Information
On April 3, Ferran López, who was chief Trapero’s number two during the October 2017, challenged the version of the facts given a few days before by Spain’s Civil Guard Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos, the chief commander of all police forces during the referendum. Xavier Melero, the lawyer of the Catalan leader Forn, called for a careo, a special face-to-face session confronting the two witnesses.
Manuel Quintela, a senior Spanish National Police officer said that the referendum weekend was started with “music, pajama, and night hot chocolate parties.”
Josep Goded 