The Spanish state prosecution files a lawsuit against Minister Borràs for the purchase of ballot boxes for the referendum

The higher prosecution of Catalonia has lodged a complaint with the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) against the Minister for Governance, Meritxell Borràs, and the Secretary-General of this department, Francesc Esteve, for having started the process of purchasing ballot boxes for the referendum. The state prosecution accuses Borràs of the crimes of malfeasance, disobedience and misuse of public funds in relation to the tender for 8,000 ballot boxes for the referendum, which was published last week in the DOGC official gazette. The complaint is also directed, as the Spanish prosecution announces, ‘against all those equally responsible during the investigation’.

The president of the government of Catalonia answered the state prosecution’s decision in support of the Minister. ‘I thought they would file a complaint for the chaos at the airport, which is what people are really worried about’, Puigdemont said on Twitter.

Em pensava que la presentarien pel caos de l'aeroport, que és el que veritablement preocupa la gent. Ànims consellera i secretari general! https://t.co/5TqRlQyUwc

— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) May 16, 2017

The Spanish prosecution argues that the process for purchasing ballot boxes breaches the resolutions of the Spanish Constitutional Court and stands forth as a sign for the referendum to be held. In this sense, it believes that Borràs and Esteve’s action supposes the initiation of the process to call a binding secessionist referendum against the express mandates of the Constitutional Court.

According to the Spanish state prosecutor, the publication of the framework agreement for the purchase of ballot boxes supposes a drive to the constituting process pre-ordered in Resolution 1/XI of the Parliament of Catalonia, which has no place in its competencies.