Right now, Jordi Pujol is waiting to know whether he will finally sit in the dock of the National Tribunal to be tried for corruption. The former Catalan president appeared briefly, via videoconference from his home, before the magistrates: “I am at your disposal to answer to the best of my ability, but I am not very fit,” he said, as sources present explained to EL PAÍS, during the brief interrogation that helped the judges assess his state of health. A court-commissioned forensic report concluded he was “not in a physical or cognitive condition” to defend himself and stand trial.
Magistrates asked Pujol, in a closed hearing, whether he is “capable” of recognizing a document if it were shown to him during the trial. “I don’t know, but I’ll try,” Pujol responded via video conference. Dressed in a suit, white shirt and dark tie, Pujol was accompanied in the trial by one of his lawyers, Albert Carrillo.
The magistrates had also ordered the appearance of the two forensic experts who had drawn up the report, Àngel Cuquerella and Xavier Pérez. In a video conference, both confirmed their report’s conclusions that Pujol is unfit to stand trial. Forensic experts, who examined his medical history and met the former Catalan president for more than an hour at his home in Barcelona, answered questions from magistrates and parties. “Him president Pujol talks a lot, but says little,” one of them said of his ability to understand the criminal process and answer questions.
After hearing from forensic experts and Pujol, magistrates took a 15-minute break to decide whether the former president will be excluded from the trial, the most likely scenario.
At 95, the former leader of Convergència is one step away from avoiding being convicted by magistrates for the crimes of illicit association and money laundering, for which the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office was asking for nine years in prison.
The trial, in any case, would also continue for the rest of the defendants, including the seven children of the former presidentwho led the Generalitat from 1980 to 2003. The public prosecutor claims that Pujol and his wife Marta Ferrusola (died in 2024) “directed” a series of “concealment and disclosure operations” of illicit profits obtained through payments to entrepreneurs. But, according to the prosecution, two of his children (Jordi and Josep) “managed” a part of these benefits” and the rest (Pere, Oleguer, Oriol, Mireia and Marta) “benefited directly and knowingly” and “contributed to their concealment”. Therefore the public prosecutor requests 29 years of imprisonment for the eldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola; 14 years for Josep; and eight years for the other five children.
The hearing on the state of health of Jordi Pujol Sr. took place behind closed doors and began with an hour’s delay due to technical problems with the videoconference connection. The all-party meeting was scheduled for 10am. The children of former president They arrived well in advance at the headquarters of the National Court of San Fernando de Henares, located in an industrial area. Josep Pujol was the first to enter the court building. Then the other descendants also did so: Oleguer, Marta and Pere entered together, while Jordi, the eldest, and Oriol, the only one who followed his father’s political career, did so separately.
