Head of prosecutor’s office in Catalonia dies at 69

The head of the Spanish prosecutor’s office in Catalonia, José María Romero de Tejada, passed away on Monday at 69, the Spanish justice minister announced. He died in Barcelona of pneumonia only nine days after the Spanish attorney general, José Manuel Maza, died abruptly while on a trip to Argentina. Romero de Tejada was in charge of the Spanish prosecutor’s office in Catalonia. He took part in the attempt to stop the October 1 referendum on independence under Maza’s instructions.

Indeed, Romero de Tejada was the prosecutor who ordered the Catalan police (the Mossos d’Esquadra) to seal off the schools that were to be used as polling stations during the weekend of the referendum. In the run-up of the vote he also ordered the Mossos to identify the people responsible for every school designated as a polling station. A few days later the Spanish Superior Court in Catalonia decided to overrule the prosecutor’s orders to the police. The Superior Court judge, instead of demanding that the police seal off the schools during the whole weekend, asked that they be sealed only during the day the referendum was to be held.

Romero de Tejada took office in 2013 and filed a lawsuit against the former Catalan president, Artur Mas, for having organized an unofficial vote on independence in 2014. Mas and two of his cabinet members were convicted of the charges and were subsequently barred from seeking office during one to two years and were also fined up to €36,500.