Four and a half years in prison for former minister Buch for signing Puigdemont’s bodyguard

The Barcelona Court has sentenced former Interior Minister Miquel Buch to 4 and a half years in prison for hiring a Mossos d’Esquadra sergeant as an advisor to continue escorting the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont after his escape from Spain.

In its ruling, the second section of the Barcelona Court also sentenced Mossos d’Esquadra sergeant Lluís E. to four years in prison. one of the agents who helped Carles Puigdemont flee Spain and whom Buch appointed Interior advisor in 2018, after the 155 stage.

Specifically, for the crime of embezzlement The court imposes four and a half years in prison on Buch and ten and a half of absolute disqualification, while for prevarication he is sentenced to nine and a half of special disqualification from holding a job or public office.

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The Prosecutor’s Office requested six years in prison and 27 of disqualification for the former counselor, from JxCat, whom he accuses of the crimes of embezzlement and prevarication for the arbitrary appointment of the sergeant who served as Puigdemont’s escort, who served as advisor for 224 days, in which he collected 52,712 euros of funds public.

At the doors of the Barcelona Court, where Buch has gone to receive personal notification of the sentence, the former Minister of the Interior has announced that, although he has not yet read the arguments of the resolution, he plans to appeal a sentence that he considers “unfair.”

“We will appeal because I am convinced of what we did and anyone who saw the trial knows that this result is unfair,” lamented Buch, who was Minister of the Interior between 2018 and 2022, in the government of Quim Torra, and had under his command the Mossos in the tense weeks due to the protests of the sentence of the process.

The former minister added that the ruling was “extremely quick, in just one month, because August is a non-working day,” which gives him the feeling that “there was a big rush” for condemning him.

(Information from EFE)