The prosecutor supports extending the Negreira case, considering the defense's suspicions to be "unfounded."

The Prosecutor's Office has endorsed the judge's decision to extend the Negreira case and rejected the request made by one of the defense attorneys, supported by FC Barcelona, ​​to have it repealed, considering their "suspicions" that the extension was granted out of time to be "unfounded."

This is what the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office maintains in a document, to which EFE has had access, addressed to the Barcelona Court to support the decision of the head of the Barcelona Court of Instruction 1, Alejandra Gil , who on February 26 extended the investigation of the Negreira case for another six months, regarding payments from FC Barcelona to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira .

The Prosecutor's Office and the prosecution brought by Real Madrid asked the judge to extend the case, a measure that the judge adopted in a ruling dated February 26th—the deadline expired at the end of the month—considering that the proceedings could be "delayed" because the suspects had not testified.

Miguel Capuz , lawyer for former Barça Sports Director Albert Soler , filed an appeal with the Barcelona Court of Appeals, which FC Barcelona's defense has joined, to demand that the extension be revoked, arguing that no diligence was carried out in the previous one and that there was no justification for its extension.

In its brief, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office maintains that there is "no rational reason" to sustain the defense's "unfounded suspicions" that the ruling could have been issued out of time, since the court's attorney confirmed that the case was filed on the same day it was signed, February 26.

Furthermore, regarding the "lack of motivation" for the extension invoked by the defense, the Prosecutor's Office emphasizes that the testimony of the suspects—which, due to scheduling reasons, has now been set for September 18, outside the six-month extension agreed to in February—may lead to further proceedings.

The Prosecutor's Office also argues that, although the main suspects, including former FC Barcelona presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu , had not been summoned before the extension, this does not invalidate the extension of the investigation because it is a procedure that must be assumed "essentially as a statement or a suitable means of defense."

Furthermore, the Prosecutor's Office emphasizes that the Supreme Court has validated interrogations of those investigated that were conducted outside the deadline, so it is "all the more reason" to accept them if, "as is the case," they were arranged within the timeframe of one of the agreed extensions.

In this case, six people investigated for payments from FC Barcelona to Negreira —his partner and son, former presidents Rosell and Bartomeu , and two former club executives—have been summoned to testify on September 18, outside the last extension agreed in February, which expires on the 1st of that month.

This delay in the statements of those under investigation could provide ammunition for the defense in its offensive before the Barcelona Court of Appeals to seek the annulment of the case, arguing that the investigation has been unjustifiably extended.

The annulment of the latest extensions in the Negreira case, an issue on which the Barcelona Court of Appeals will soon have to take a position, would threaten the investigation into the case, which began more than two years ago, because it could not be sent to trial without the defendants having testified.

So far, the only suspect who has appeared in the case is Enríquez Negreira , who merely informed the judge that he was exercising his right not to testify, after unsuccessfully attempting to remain excluded from the case by claiming that he suffers from dementia.