By Joiner Martínez
The Barcelona Court has revoked the decision of the judge in the ‘Negreira case’ to charge the Barcelona Football Club (FCB) and the directors investigated for payments to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) with bribery.
In an order, section 21 of the Barcelona Court agrees with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the defenses and annuls the accusation of bribery in the ‘Negreira case’.
In the aforementioned order, it reads: “The resolution of section 21 of Barcelona, once the two nuclear aspects have been examined, understands that the exercise of the powers that correspond to the CTA in which he was a member as one of its Vice Presidents in the period included between 1993 to 2018 JMEN (Enríquez Negreira), are not functions, in any case, exercised by delegation (from the Higher Sports Council), but in the exercise of those corresponding to his activity. For all these reasons, the order of the Court of Barcelona concludes that, by participating in the exercise of public functions, as the contested order maintains, the status of public official could not be attributed to him, which in turn would cause the provisional qualification contained in the document to decline. car as a crime of bribery.”
“Likewise, the resolution states that the contested order incurs a certain contradiction, due to the fact that it maintains in its operative part, the qualification for the crime of sports corruption when the entire basis of the resolution is oriented exclusively and apparently excluding, to justify Mr. EN’s status as a public official in order to incorporate and attribute the crime of bribery. However, and having declared the inadmissibility of this new and provisional qualification, it is appropriate to maintain the investigation in the terms prior to the issuance of the resolution that must be revoked.”
Barcelona statement
After the resolution of the Barcelona Court, FC Barcelona issued a statement in which it was satisfied with the decision and hopes that in the following judicial steps the innocence of the Barcelona club in the ‘Negreira case’ can be demonstrated.
“The FCB shows its satisfaction with the meaning of the resolution issued today by the Barcelona Court to the extent that it confirms the approach defended by the Club and discards the hypothesis of the alleged crime of bribery. We maintain our conviction that through the courts the facts that are the subject of the complaint can be definitively clarified and the absolute innocence of the Club can be proven,” says the Barça statement after learning that he is not charged with the crime of bribery in the ‘Negreira case’. .
It is worth remembering that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office opposed the investigation of FC Barcelona for bribery for payments to José María Enríquez Negreira, concluding that he did not have the status of public official that this type of crime requires.
Keep reading:
Joan Laporta and Florentino Pérez got together after the accusations over the ‘Negreira Case’
Payments to Negreira were hidden from the former head of financial ethics at FC Barcelona
Jaime Latre reveals that Spanish referees paid Negreira’s son in cash for coaching services