Barcelona, (EFE) .
According to an order issued by the court, the magistrate has dismissed the club’s claim to appear as an aggrieved party after considering Barça’s request as contradictory.
A court in Barcelona is investigating the Barça club and the former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, among others, for the crimes of corruption between individuals in the sports field, unfair administration and false commercial documents, for payments to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira.
Barça had considered in a brief presented before the judge that, regardless of whether the arbitration technical service entrusted to Negreira had a “real and effective” service, there are suspicions that this advice would have been billed “doubly” and, furthermore, one of the billing channels was through interposed merchants who “received a commission.”
For this reason, Barça had asked the investigating court to be able to have the status of both being investigated and harmed, as they were also the victim of an unfair administration crime.
The judge considers Barcelona’s claim contradictory
The judge has dismissed Barça’s request, considering the Barça club’s claim contradictory since the current president, Joan Laporta, stated in an appearance on April 17 “that the advisory services were actually provided, which were documented in detailed invoices with the corresponding concepts and were paid by bank transfers”.
In addition, it adds that the preliminary conclusions of the Compliance Report “does not show the existence of any patrimonial damage for the Club”.
The court emphasizes that, as the Prosecutor’s Office maintains, what is raised in the case is that the “improper” administration was carried out by “the legal representatives or by those who, acting individually or as members of an organ of the person legal person, are authorized to make decisions on behalf of the legal person or have organizational and control powers within it.
On the other hand, the court has decreed in another order the extension of the secrecy of proceedings for another month given the current state of the investigation, “and pending the result of the proceedings” agreed in an order from last May.
The judge maintains that they must be carried out in secret “in order not to hinder the result of the investigation, which will be the opportune moment to carry out a new assessment on the origin or not of the maintenance” of this measure, which the order defines as “rational, logical, founded, necessary and legally supported.
In a third order, the court has admitted the appearance of an individual as popular accusation, with a set bail of 3,000 euros, which must be paid to be able to make said appearance within ten days from the resolution.