Barcelona, (EFE).- The president of the suspended Parliament and leader of JxCat, Laura Borràs, has announced this Thursday that she is taking “a parenthesis” from public activity while her trial lasts for allegedly awarding contracts to a friend when she presided over the Institution of Catalan Letters, a judicial process that will begin tomorrow.
“I was not prepared for this, I need to take a parenthesis, I need to concentrate on what is most important, which is to defend my innocence,” Borràs assured in a video distributed on his Twitter account.
The Prosecutor’s Office is asking for six years in prison and 21 years of disqualification for Borràs for allegedly handing out 18 minor contracts to a friend at the Institution of Catalan Letters, and will be tried in the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC).
Sources from the president’s environment have explained that this “parenthesis”, which will last for the duration of the trial, will mean that Borràs will not participate in public events or be active on social networks.
In the video, Borràs affirms that the judicial process he is facing “has always had a clear objective”, which has become “more evident to everyone” after the latest movements of the Prosecutor’s Office, which finalizes an agreement with Isaías H ., Borràs’s friend, so that he can be released from jail in exchange for ratting out the president of JxCat.
“Now I need to withdraw, I need the work that I was so proud of at the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes to be defended by my lawyers, and I can concentrate on proving my innocence with evidence,” said the suspended president of Parliament.
Shows of support
Borràs has appreciated the signs of support he receives from his supporters, and, despite the fact that he withdraws from social networks, he has said that whoever wants to send him messages can do so at his party email: “I will need this gasoline to cope what will come”.
«I need to do it surrounded by my own, taking care of my own and allowing my own to take care of me. That is why I appreciate the shows of support you give me », Borràs has indicated about the trial he is facing.
The former president of the Generalitat Quim Torra has responded to Borràs’s tweet: “And, at this decisive moment, we will also be with you, most honorable president.”
JxCat has called a rally at the gates of the TSJC tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. to support Borràs, a rally that will not be attended by the Government, the ERC or the CUP, nor Òmnium Cultural, although the ANC and the Council of the Catalan Republic.