Baena at the Supreme Court in 10 sentences: from the "insurrection period" to the beginning of the investigation

The investigator of the October 1 events, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Baena, revealed in the Catalan independence trial taking place at the Supreme Court that he began to investigate the rebellion process in 2015, two years before the referendum, precisely under the orders of Javier Zaragoza, back then head prosecutor of the National Court, now one of the Supreme Court prosecutors intervening in the Catalan independence trial.

Baena, head of the judicial police of the Guardia Civil in Catalonia, identified under police ID number T43166Q, defined the "insurrection period" as the one between September 20 and the enforcement of article 155 of the Constitution. However, he admitted that there were no arrests or calls to violence.

During his statement, Lieutenant Colonel Baena denied being behind Tácito's Twitter profile, which was used to attack pro-independence parties anonymously.

The statement of Baena began at 10:00 PM and it went on until 6:00 PM, with the corresponding break at midday for lunch. It was similar in duration to the one of major Trapero. These are the main moments of his statement:

"Insurrection period"

"Here, the atmosphere lived, since I designed many of the devices of the judicial police, actions that we had to do,… here we already had our hypothetical scenarios in which we could find ourselves in an atmosphere that we could qualify. And, according to the objectives and  the number of actions that were produced, the atmosphere was clearly insurrectional. 

"Those days, any policemen with a minimum sense of responsibility knew that, in that situation, any small incident could lead to an uncontrollable escalation, but fortunately it was not like that. But that not being the case does not mean that the circumstances of this period were not what they were. The feeling that we, the 3 police bodies that were there had, was that we were facing a powder keg. It is unquestionable. "

Authorized to use force on September 20

"The court order was complied with, but the judge ordered to act if the physical integrity of the members of the commission who were inside the Ministry was altered or seriously in danger. We didn't take that decision because people gathered in the outside did finally not enter the Ministry"

Some of the defense counsels, during the questionings to liutenant Colonel Baena

He started to investigate the Catalan pro-independence process in November 2015

"The chief prosecutor of the National Court ordered the three police bodies to start investigating as a result of the beginning of the pro-independence process. It is stated there, in that order. There were possible crimes of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds already in November of 2015."

"The prosecutor gave us the room to investigate (...) the investment of public funds used for the development of State structures for whenever the state of Catalonia became independent. What we first did was, eminently, a investigation of the economics: contracts, hirings, contracting frameworks, seeing what is this public money being used for. This is the first objective. Obviously, we were not looking for sedition, but we noticed a bit of misuse of public funds, which may afterwards lead us to starting some diligences ...

"We did not investigate the National Pact for the Referendum, nor any social entity. We investigated people who did things, not entities."

"Then, we got a definitive corroboration with the agenda, and then we had another vision of the general corroboration of the Catalan Pro-independence process with the "Enfocats" document."

"When Mr. Salvadó's office was searched, a series of measures to be implemented were found for October 2. So much so that, when independence was declared, the Parliament ordered the Catalan Government to carry out a series of measures. I think they were 14 or so. These measures were among those ordered by the Parliamentary executive. The very same measures that Mr. Salvadó prepared in his office."

Inconsistency over questions on the proceedings

"I stant to whatever is stated in the police proceedings."

Denies being Tácito at Twitter

own account (...) and I was following this concrete account. (...) It has both been refuted at the press and the Senate, as well as in a committee within the Congress of Deputies ... And no, I am not the owner of this account."

Related interactive resource: The keys of the Catalan independence trial