BarcelonaSandro Rosell had sought compensation of almost 30 million euros for damages, after having been unjustly imprisoned for two years (2017-2019) for crimes for which he was eventually acquitted. The former Barça president, however, will only receive 18,000 euros. The Ministry of Justice opposes the multimillion-dollar settlement requested by the Barcelona businessman, the bulk of whose compensation corresponded to two contracts that were canceled while he was in prison.
The former Barça president, who was finally acquitted of the crimes of criminal organization and money laundering – he was being investigated for the audiovisual contracts of the Brazilian national football team – began his particular battle against the state in 2019. after spending 645 days unjustly imprisoned. Rosell demanded compensation for the financial losses, financial expenses and travel of relatives to visit him. And, of the 29.7 million he requested, he reduces the amount to 18,000 euros, the equivalent of 28.9 euros per day deprived of liberty. Money that is not calculated on a daily basis, but corresponds to an approach taken by the State Attorney’s Office after studying its case.
Specifically, and as detailed in the newspaper Abc, Rosell was asking for more than 27 million euros for two contracts he lost when he went to prison. In addition, he wanted 405,000 euros for reputational damage, 320,000 for emotional harm and 200,000 for psychological damage. At the same time, he wanted compensation for everything he had spent on lawyers (668,904 euros), 62,950 for his family’s trips to prison and an additional 34,660 in interest.
The reasons of the Ministry of Justice for refusing Sandro Rosell’s request
“Once the circumstances have been assessed, the plaintiff must be recognized [Rosell] an indemnity that is valued globally, in the amount of 18,000 euros for moral damage “, the text sent by the State Attorney’s Office to the National High Court, the court that tried the case of the former Barça president. moreover, he maintains that pre-trial detention – even if the case ended in acquittal – was “reasonably justified” because “it was reviewed repeatedly, up to 13 times, not only by the Central Court of Instruction 3 but by the National High Court itself.”
Dolell has issued a statement complaining that the Justice Department’s ruling “lacks any legal logic.” In addition, and regarding the canceled contracts, he says that he is “surprised” because the Advocacy responds that he would not have lost them if he had claimed them. But the former president replies that “the deprivation of liberty of one of the contracting parties is a just cause for termination of contract.”
According to the text, Sandro Rosell’s legal team is still willing to collect the compensation, despite the opposition of the Ministry of Justice, and will exhaust all legal avenues. On the other hand, and after the Constitutional Court did not accept the complaint against the magistrate Carmen Lamela -the person in charge of the investigation of her case, and who ordered provisional imprisonment without bail-, she reports that she has taken the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
