Josep Maria Bartomeu and Jaume Masferrer maintain their speech on Barçagate. Both the former Barça president and his right-hand man argue that they only commissioned a company to track messages on social media, but that in no case were they responsible for the defamatory messages that were written from fake profiles. . This Monday they have reassured him in the City of Justice, where they have declared as a result of the complaint filed by the businessman Jaume Roures, who accuses them of having used all this intrigue to send messages against him.
At a time of crisis at Barça, and in a week where Joan Laporta’s management has to give details about Due Diligence -which, predictably, will detail negligence committed by the outgoing board while commanding the club-, Bartomeu’s arrival at courts has generated a lot of media expectation. The former president, however, has done his best to dodge journalists. He has even been the protagonist of an almost comic scene, when he was about to leave but, seeing the crowd of media approaching him, he turned around and took refuge again in the room where he was celebrating the oral hearing. In the end he ended up leaving, but without answering any questions.
A brief statement
It’s been a brief sight, less than an hour. And the intervention of former President Bartholomew has lasted about ten minutes badly counted. Both Bartomeu and Masferrer have refused to answer questions from Jaume Roures’ lawyer, but have answered those of their lawyers (José Maria Fuster-Fabra, on behalf of Bartomeu, and Olga Tubau, on behalf of of Masferrer) and those of the judge. Although, as the lawyers have clarified, the magistrate’s interrogation has been especially short.
In his statement, Bartomeu detailed that he only had a meeting with Carlos Ibáñez (the head of I3 Ventures, the company hired to monitor the networks and that, according to the main cause of Barçagate, was in charge of the false profiles), and that in this encounter did not order any message in particular. He also said he was not aware of the tweets that had been posted. And he said that, in the event that he was informed by e-mail, these e-mails would first go through his secretary, who was the one who had previously filtered them. So his version is that he had neither commissioned nor was aware of anything.
Masferrer, in the line of Bartomeu
Masferrer’s statement, also not very extensive, has been along the same lines. Bartomeu’s former chief of staff says he has learned of the existence of these messages from the complaint filed by Jaume Roures. And he has assured that he did not give instructions to anything at I3 Ventures, adding that he was never consulted by the company on the contents to be published. During the hearing, they also testified that one of the Twitter accounts on which the defamation lawsuit is based was created in 2014 and, therefore, in his view could not be a commission with I3 Ventures, as the contract with this company was made in 2017.
Now it will be the turn of justice, which will determine whether Bartomeu and Masferrer are responsible for the messages against Jaume Roures, or whether he gives validity to his story and exonerates them of guilt.
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