the investigation started due a complaint presented by the far-right political party vox and an anonymous complainant, in response to a claim from catalan judge and politician santiago vidal assuring that preparations for the referendum were underway. the investigation was assigned to the trial court number 13 of barcelona, which had a conservative judge, ramírez sunyer, close to the general council of the judiciary. according to the defense, the assignment was against the rules and was done arbitrarily to get a hard anti-independence judge to investigate the case.