BarcelonaMembers of the Junts per Catalunya board marched through the City of Justice this Wednesday. The summons was directly related to a case that shook the party five years ago now: the formation suspended its deputy Eduard Pujol from militancy for two alleged cases of sexual harassment that surfaced. Neither woman ended up filing a formal complaint and Pujol responded by reporting them. Over the months, the party reinstated him and now Pujol is a senator of the juntaires. At the same time, one of her accusers, a councilor for the formation, asked her for forgiveness and the court case did not go any further. The case of the second complainant has indeed come to trial, and it has begun in the City of Justice. The woman is accused of insults and harassment and this Wednesday she testified, along with Pujol himself and some prominent members of Junts such as Albert Batet or Jordi Sànchez.
The story of the complainant and the accused coincided at the beginning of the chronology of the events: they started talking in August 2018 through social networks even though they already knew each other from Vilafranca del Penedès. The conversations led to face-to-face meetings, which in turn led to sexual relations. Pujol assured that the woman wanted “more encounters”, that she was “very insistent” and wanted the relationship to go further. In turn, the accused has said that he was “the pushy one”, with “storms of messages” and that in the end he just wanted to stay to have sex. She has narrated that she felt “despised” by this situation and that she found herself in an “unequal” relationship. He has also spoken about the abuse of power. “He would come in, open the door and we would have sex, whether I liked it or not,” he explained. He has also criticized that the conversations, which Eduard Pujol has contributed to the cause, were only sexual. Several messages have been read in this regard.
Instead, Pujol explained that the “suffocating insistence” was from the woman. From 2019, the senator continued, his “hell, a tunnel of terror” began. He has insisted that he tried to end the relationship more than once, but that at that moment began what he denounces as harassment: he accuses the woman of making several posts on social networks, calling him a “rapist”, among many other insults. He also explained that while these publications were being made, the woman kept threatening him in private. Specifically, he has said that he warned him before the publications and blackmailed him. The accused assured that the publications were not hers. However, Pujol added that he tried to mediate with her, without luck, through a friend of hers, who also testified at the trial – and said she remembered few things – and a friend of hers. The defense of the accused has asked why the messages with sexual content did not disappear during this period and Pujol has pointed out that it was a way of trying to fix things.
The internal process
As the months passed, the accused explained that she received a message from the councilwoman who also reported Pujol for harassment – at that time she had not yet done so. The councilwoman recommended that she go see Aurora Madaula, then Junts deputy, to talk about Eduard Pujol’s behavior. At the meeting there was also the complainant councilor, who has confirmed the meeting at the courthouse. The investigated has said that she held a meeting of just over five minutes with Madaula, explaining to her what had happened with Pujol. He has said that at no time did he attribute specific criminal behavior to her, but instead narrated how she felt permanently sexualized. After that, the woman heard nothing more. The following scene has been described by Pujol: Albert Batet, parliamentary leader of Junts, summoned him and recommended that he leave the minutes of deputy after two cases of harassment had surfaced. “It was my civil death”, Pujol has assured, and he has pointed to the fact that at no time was he given any official document about the allegations.
Albert Batet has admitted in court that Madaula told him that these were very serious crimes. Madaula also sent Jordi Sànchez, then general secretary of Junts, a letter setting out the facts and Sànchez has declared that it was at that moment when he made the decision to remove him. In this sense, Batet has recognized that the party had no protocol to deal with it.
Predictably, the trial was supposed to begin and end this Wednesday, but it has taken longer than expected and the lawyers’ final conclusions will be made in a new session next February 5.
