Barcelona 16/10/2023 Act. and las 18:28 CEST
The club presents a letter in which it reproaches him for extending suspicions to the boards that have run the club since 2001
Barcelona denies that Negreira can be considered an official even for “criminal purposes”
He FC Barcelona has appealed the decision of the judge in the ‘Negreira case’ to investigate him for briberyin a letter in which he reproaches him for extending suspicions to the boards that have run the club since 2001, when payments to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) began.
In a writing, to which EFE has had access, Lawyers Cristóbal Martell and Marc Molins have appealed the decision of the investigating judge before the Court of BarcelonaJoaquín Aguirre, to investigate Barça’s payments to former CTA vice president José María Enríquez Negreira for a crime of bribery, considering that he held a status comparable to that of a public official.
In his appeal, Barcelona denies that Negreira can be considered an official even for “criminal purposes”, which is why it asks the Barcelona Court to revoke the crime of bribery that the judge incorporated into the case, so that the investigation continues only for the crime of corruption in sports that was raised in the initial complaint by the Prosecutor’s Office.
For lawyers, the new criminal classification, “far from constituting a sterile style exercise, it can produce a very relevant impact on the course and research development of the process in terms of time periods and people investigated”.
In that sense, The document warns that the incorporation of bribery “puts a rearview mirror that looks to the year 2001.”in which payments linked to José Enríquez Negreira and his companies begin.”
This produces, adds the resource, “a kind of procedural elephantiasis by projecting possible accused status to other boards and other management teams of the Barcelona Football Club” regardless of the scope of the prescription, which varies depending on the type of bribery.
“And that exercise of temporal and subjective broadening of the cause should be avoided“adds the letter, which advocates delimiting the prescription of the case to avoid “putting an infinite rear-view mirror on previous events.”
The lawyers disgrace the instructor who stretches “far beyond the extensive interpretation of the concepts of public official for criminal purposes” to avoid the “punishment loophole” in the crime of corruption in sports, which could not be applied to federation directors like Negreira.
The appeal also maintains that Enríquez Negreira does not have the “status of an official, nor an official for criminal purposes, nor does his activity in the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) have the nature of exercising a public function“, so the accusation of bribery must be ruled out.
According to the lawyers, the investigated “nor is he appointed by express and immediate provision of the law“He has neither accessed public office through an election nor has he been appointed by a competent authority, assumptions that in his opinion grant the status of official for criminal purposes.
In fact, the writing emphasizes, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) who appoints him “is not an authority for criminal purposes since it lacks command, that is, the capacity and coercion to enforce what is ordered, nor jurisdiction in its understanding as the capacity to resolve conflicts.”
“Well then, If the president is not, the person who depends on him can hardly be. and whom he appoints”, the resource abounds.
The lawyers They also argue that an examination of the sports legislation shows that “in no way” does the CTA participate in public functions. but is limited to “considering technical infractions by soccer referees that are not provided for in the Sports Discipline Regulations.”