Barcelona / MadridThe courts will have to be the ones to decide who is behind the Pegasus case, the espionage of dozens of pro-independence leaders, including the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and also of members of the Spanish Government such as President Pedro Sánchez himself, but the investigations are advancing at a different pace. In Catalonia, the investigating court 32 of Barcelona seemed destined to lead the great macro-cause of Catalangate, but the complaints of Òmnium Cultural, the ANC, ERC and the CUP have ended up being dispersed in four different courts, with the risk that the case ends up being diluted . In Madrid, on the other hand, the National Court has printed cruising speed in the investigation into espionage on Sánchez’s cell phones and also on the Ministers of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and of Defense, Margarita Robles.
In the month and a half that magistrate José Luis Calama has been investigating the case, he has carried out twice as many procedures as those carried out by the Barcelona judge in the 19 months that he investigated the hacking of the mobile phones of former Parliament president Roger Torrent and the councilor of ERC in Barcelona Ernest Maragall, a case that he also provisionally filed two weeks ago due to the failure of the only two tests he requested: a request for information from Israel, Belgium and Ireland that is still awaiting a response and the analysis of the mobiles, which is not can be done because they are formatted. In Madrid, on the other hand, the judge has not only sent a rogatory commission to Israel, but has expanded it and has already summoned three witnesses to testify.
The two speeds of the investigation on the Pegasus case
Chronological situation of the Barcelona and Madrid investigations, and list of actions carried out by each
Court of Instruction 32 from Barcelona
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Open the case onOctober 2020 and provisionally archive it May 30, 2022
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1. Send three letters rogatory to Israel, Belgium and Ireland (no answer)
2. Request the analysis of Torrent and Maragall phones (which cannot be delivered)
3. Reject the accumulation of complaints from Omnium, the CUP and ERC
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Central Court 4 National High Court from Madrid
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Open the cause May 3, 2022
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1. Send a rogatory commission to Israel
2. Expand this rogatory commission to go to Israel
3. Ask to analyze Sánchez and Robles’ mobile phones
4. Interrogation as a witness of the director of the CNI
5. Interrogation as a witness to a CNI official
6. Summon the Minister of the Presidency to testify as a witness
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Court of Instruction 32 from Barcelona
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Open the case onOctober 2020 and provisionally archive it May 30, 2022
–
1. Send three letters rogatory to Israel, Belgium and Ireland (no answer)
2. Request the analysis of Torrent and Maragall phones (which cannot be delivered)
3. Reject the accumulation of complaints from Omnium, the CUP and ERC
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Central Court 4 National High Court from Madrid
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Open the cause May 3, 2022
–
1. Send a rogatory commission to Israel
2. Expand this rogatory commission to go to Israel
3. Ask to analyze Sánchez and Robles’ mobile phones
4. Interrogation as a witness of the director of the CNI
5. Interrogation as a witness to a CNI official
6. Summon the Minister of the Presidency to testify as a witness
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Court of Instruction 32
from Barcelona
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Open the case in October 2020 and file it
provisionally on May 30, 2022
–
1. Send three letters rogatory to Israel, Belgium and Ireland (no answer)
2. Request the analysis of Torrent and Maragall phones (which cannot be delivered)
3. Reject the accumulation of complaints from Omnium, the CUP and ERC
–
Central Court 4
National Court
from Madrid
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Open the cause
May 3, 2022
–
1. Send a rogatory commission to Israel
2. Expand this rogatory commission to go to Israel
3. Ask to analyze Sánchez and Robles’ mobile phones
4. Interrogation as a witness of the director of the CNI
5. Interrogation as a witness to a CNI official
6. Summon the Minister of the Presidency to testify as a witness
–
–
Court of Instruction 32
from Barcelona
–
He opened the case in October 2020
and archive it provisionally
on May 30, 2022
–
1. Send three letters rogatory to Israel, Belgium and Ireland (no answer)
2. Request the analysis of Torrent and Maragall phones (which cannot be delivered)
3. Reject the accumulation of complaints from Omnium, the CUP and ERC
–
Central Court 4
National Court
from Madrid
–
Open the cause
May 3, 2022
–
1. Send a rogatory commission to Israel
2. Expand this rogatory commission to go to Israel
3. Ask to analyze Sánchez and Robles’ mobile phones
4. Interrogation as a witness of the director of the CNI
5. Interrogation as a witness to a CNI official
6. Summon the Minister of the Presidency to testify as a witness
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Judge Calama opened the investigation the day after receiving the complaint from the State Attorney. The magistrate analyzed the phones and, after the Spanish executive made public the report from the National Cryptologic Center, on May 11 he expanded the case and included espionage on Marlaska’s cell phone and the attempt to break into the phone of the Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas. In just over a month, the magistrate asked Israel for a letter rogatory to NSO, the company that owns Pegasus, to report on the spyware. And on June 7, in addition to lifting the secrecy of the proceedings, he announced that he himself would lead the judicial delegation that would travel to Israel to interrogate the CEO of this company. The magistrate has also taken a statement from the former director of the CNI Paz Esteban and the official of this center in charge of preparing the reports of the case, while on July 5 the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, will have to testify as a witness. of the security of the Moncloa.
Dispersion of complaints
In Barcelona, the decision of court 32 to file the case of Torrent and Maragall has caused the dispersion of the complaints of Òmnium, the ANC, ERC and the CUP in four different courts. Initially, the judges who received the demands sent them to 32, but both the judge and the Prosecutor’s Office have refused to accumulate them in a single case. The Òmnium complaint has ended up in court 21, that of the CUP in 22 and that of ERC and that of the lawyer Andreu van den Eynde in 24. The only one that continues on the table of 32 is that of the ANC. The Prosecutor’s Office still has to assess whether to stay in this court or return to 11, where it was originally assigned.
The ANC complaint is the only one that does not raise any responsibility of NSO, but rather focuses on the State agencies that could have commissioned the espionage. The rest pointed to the Israeli company, which made the Prosecutor’s Office argue that they could not join, at least for now, the case of Torrent and Maragall, archived precisely because of the lack of response from Israel. Without the information, the judge of 32 alleges that right now there is “no basis” to investigate the company.
The ANC’s lawyer, Antoni Abad, compares the decision of the Barcelona judge with that of Calama, which has “followed its path” and will go to Israel himself. “Today things can be done in many ways, although there is a significant difference in means between the two courts,” he explains. The lawyers for ERC, Andreu van den Eynde, and the CUP and Òmnium, Benet Salellas, have asked courts 24, 22 and 21 to speed up the investigations. Salellas considers that they could be added to the Calama expedition or at least incorporate the result. The criminal lawyer denounces “the important difference” in treatment that “is being given to the victims protected by the National High Court and those who have reported the events in Barcelona courts” and recalls that the law does not allow a “gradation” between the victims depending on “the position they hold”. In fact, the three Barcelona courts seem to have adopted the rhythm of 32: in the month and a half that they have had the complaints on the table, they have not even decided whether to admit them for processing.
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