The seven Spanish police vehicles "razed" outside the Ministry and other doubts arising from the prosecution's cross-examination of Forn

BarcelonaFormer Catalan minister Joaquim Forn’s cross-examination has given rise to the first exchange of words between the Prosecutor General's Office and the pro-independence leaders sitting in the Supreme Court’s dock. Following former-vice president Oriol Junqueras’ refusal to answer questions put to him by the chief prosecutor, former Interior Minister Joaquim Forn took part in a heated face-to-face exchange with prosecutor Fidel Cadena. During the cross-examination, Cadena made several blunders and mentioned some rather unexpected details, such as when —in reference to the events of 20 September 2017 outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Economy— he spoke of seven vehicles belonging to the Spanish Guardia Civil. ARA decided to take a closer look at some of the information.

Seven Spanish Guardia Civil vehicles "razed"

One of the first clashes between Forn and Cadena came as a result of questions asked by the prosecutor concerning the events which took place outside the Ministry of Economy on 20 September 2017. Specifically, Cadena spoke of seven Civil Guard cars "razed and destroyed", a figure which surprised the former minister, who referred to only two vehicles. Where did the number seven come from? It originally appeared in documents relating to the indictment issued by the Attorney General and the Solicitor General’s Office, which mention "three Guardia Civil Nissan Patrol units and four unmarked cars which were parked" outside the headquarters of the ministry on the Rambla de Catalunya.

The images of the three Nissan four by fours —covered in stickers and with some of their windows broken— are clearly visible, but not the "unmarked" cars. In fact, in the images of the damages circulated on social media by members of the Guardia Civil shortly after, only these three vehicles are shown.

Nevertheless, the account of the events given by the Prosecutor's Office in the indictment states that in the morning "the mob" surrounded the vehicles, and that all seven cars —the three bearing Civil Guard insignia and the four which did not— "ended up razed and destroyed both inside and outside". The use of the term "razed" muddled the prosecutor’s point.

When Forn questioned the use of the adjective "razed" to describe the state in which the cars were left, the prosecutor vehemently denied having used the word at all. However, video playback of his words shows that he did use it. And that’s not all. The very same term can be found in the indictment from both the Prosecutor's Office and far-right party Vox, who in turn borrowed it from the investigation undertaken by the Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena.

A poor translation into Spanish

Another of the lines of questioning employed by the prosecutor which has itself been called into question is the translation from Catalan into Spanish of a report by the Commissary General of the Mossos on 1 October [Catalan police]. In the Public Prosecutor’s translation of a document which he considers key to proving that the Mossos were under Catalan government orders to ensure that the referendum took place, the sentence "On 1 October 2017 the self-determination referendum is scheduled to take place in Catalonia" was translated as "On 1 October 2017 the self-determination referendum must take place in Catalonia".

This translation allowed the prosecutor to interpret "must take place" as proof of an obligation, which is clearly not the case if the phrase is translated correctly, as found in the expert opinion given by the president of the Grammar Commission of the Philological Section of the Institute of Catalan Studies [IEC in Catalan]. The IEC report clearly states that the translation "must take place" is never correct "under any circumstances" and that the correct translation from Catalan to Spanish would be: "On 1 October 2017 the self-determination referendum is scheduled to take place in Catalonia (or will take place)". The report states that, if the ministry had wished to imply a sense of obligation they would have written "On 1 October the referendum on the self-determination of Catalonia must take place".

Did La Crida encourage people to participate in demonstrations on 20 September?

Another of the statements made by the chief prosecutor which caused some raised eyebrows was when he remarked that "organizations such as the Crida [the Call]" encouraged people to occupy the polling stations ahead of the vote. However, the Crida —the newly-created association presided by Jordi Sànchez and backed by Carles Puigdemont— did not exist at the time, which led the Catalan president himself to question the prosecution’s documentation. However, the prosecutor was probably referring to the "Crida per la Democràcia [Call for Democracy]", the campaign backed by Òmnium Cultural which encouraged Catalans to vote in the 1 October referendum.

The prosecutor’s blunders involving the Oriols

Having failed to say the full name of the campaign or confusing the "Call for Democracy" with an organization instead of a campaign, wasn’t the only blunder made by the chief prosecutor, especially when it came to speaking about Oriol Junqueras. At the beginning of his cross-examination of Joaquim Forn, for example, he referred to Oriol Junqueras as Oriol Pujol, and subsequently spoke of Oriol Turull.