The Institute of Human Rights of Andorra and the collective of Catalan lawyers Drets file a complaint against Mariano Rajoy in the case of Banca Privada Andorrana

They present an extension of the complaint originally filed in 2017 and, after a first extension, against the former commanders of the National Police and the former attaché of the Interior of the Spanish Embassy in Andorra, that is, Eugenio Pino, Marcelino Martín Blas, Bonifacio Díez and Celestino Barroso, respectively. The complaint is now also directed against Mariano Rajoy, Jorge Fernández Díaz, Cristóbal Montoro, the former head of the Spanish police Ignacio Cosidó and the former Secretary of State of the Interior Francisco Martínez. The complaint is based on an attack on Andorran sovereignty through coercion, threats, extortion and blackmail, more specifically, the events carried out as part of Operation Catalunya, in the context of which the Bank was allegedly extorted to provide them with information about the bank accounts of Mas, Junqueras and Pujol. The expansion to include new defendants now also alleges the crime of document forgery, considering that they would have been the promoters of sending false information to FinCEN in order to draw up a dossier against the Bank and have the entity intervened by the Andorran authorities, causing its closure; and for a crime of coercion of constitutional bodies. Agustí Carles from the Drets lawyers collective, explains that they consider the FinCEN note to be based on this false information sent by the Spanish government. In June 2022, the case’s judge notifies them that they are being investigated as part of the case. Higini Cierco, the largest shareholder of the Bank, also files a complaint against different Andorran authorities for prevarication for the decisions taken, before and after the FinCEN note, which had a devastating effect on the Bank.