«These scandalous salaries do not exist»

The former president of Caixa Catalunya Narcís Serra said Thursday, when leaving the first day of his trial in the Audiencia of Barcelona for the salaries of the entity, that "these scandalous salaries do not exist" and that all decisions were legal and legitimate .

Speaking to the media, when asked about allegedly disproportionate salaries that were approved in two boards of directors in 2010, he said: "These outrageous salaries do not exist, the prosecutor only accuses us of the director's salary. .

Serra has admitted that he is worried: "It would be unusual for a person to be under trial and not be worried, calm and worried."

The former minister, who faces a four-year prison sentence for two alleged crimes of unfair administration at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, has assured that it will prove in the trial that all the defendants did "what corresponded".

"And that many things we even saw before other authorities, that we change the direction, that there are only legal and legitimate decisions," he added.

Upon his arrival at the courtroom this Thursday morning, Serra had already stated that he does not regret his management at the head of Caixa Catalunya: "I did what I had to do".

Section 8 of the Hearing has begun to judge him along with other 40 defendants for the allegedly disproportionate salaries of the entity in the years of greatest economic crisis, from 2008 to 2012, and during the session have raised the previous issues.

During the hearing, the court accepted at the request of Pau Molins, Narcís Serra's lawyer, that the accused may be absent from some sessions if they so request - 28 days are foreseen - once they have been declared as defendants, although they must be for the turn of the last word.

The defense of Serra has raised during the previous questions that the order of opening of oral judgment dictated by the Court of Instruction 30 of Barcelona be annulled, when considering that the CUP, which acts as a popular accusation, is not entitled to bring civil action and claim economic responsibility for the accused.

The court has already announced that it will reject the annulment of the order to open a trial, which will allow the trial to continue, although it has announced that it will provide written arguments on whether the CUP can bring the civil action.

With this same argument on the CUP, Pau Molins has asked to reduce the bail requested from his clients as civil liability, because neither the CUP nor the Inter-union Confederation of Savings Banks (CIC) - an accusation that has been withdrawn - have the legitimacy to ask them for that civil liability, with which the bond should be set at the amount requested by the prosecutor, 2.5 million euros, and not 9.5 (for the request of the CUP).

Juan Segarra - lawyer of the former director of Caixa Catalunya Adolf Todó, one of the accused directors whose salaries the public prosecutor sees as "disproportionate" - has requested that, upon the withdrawal of the CIC's private accusation, he should be returned a bank guarantee provided to cover the request they made, 800,000 euros of bail.

Segarra has asked, on the other hand, that the Prosecutor's Office exclude from his accusation that the board of directors of January 2010 increased the fixed salary of Todó, since in the initial complaint and in the judicial investigation he only referred to the variable increase, that for the lawyer may violate the right of defense and effective judicial protection.

If this request is accepted, something that the court will decide in the coming days, the amount of Todó's salary increase derived from that council's agreement that should be judged would go from 700,000 euros to 56,000, according to the lawyer.

Marc Molins - defense of other defendants - has requested during the hearing that the planned order for the declaration of the 41 defendants in the trial be altered, and that they declare at the end to guarantee the right of defense and equality of arms, a petition that has been dismissed by the court.

The next session, having completed the processing of previous issues one day before scheduled in the calendar, will be on Thursday October 11 with the declaration of Serra and Todó.