Spanish Tax Office Summons ex-Catalan Leader

Spain's tax office summoned a former president of the economically powerful and rebellious region of Catalonia for questioning on Friday after he admitted to concealing undeclared money in secret foreign bank accounts.

Jordi Pujol, who was president of Catalonia from 1980 to 2003, announced in a statement on July 25 that his family had hidden an inheritance from his father in offshore accounts for over three decades.

The 84-year-old, who in recent years has become a leading advocate of Catalonia's independence from Spain, had previously denied media reports of having Swiss or other undeclared accounts.

Pujol did not say how much money he had hidden abroad to avoid tax but Catalan daily newspaper La Vanguardia reported that four million euros ($5.4 million) was kept in a bank account in the principality of Andorra, a tiny landlocked nation wedged between France and Spain.

"It's from the tax office, I have nothing else to say," Pujol told reporters who were staked outside of his holiday home in Queralbs in the Pyrenees after he was delivered the summons.

Asked if it was a summons to be questioned he said: "Yes, of course."

In a separate move, a Barcelona court on Friday asked Pujol to hand over a copy of his father's will.

In the statement Pujol issued two weeks ago, he said his father left money kept in undeclared foreign accounts to his wife and seven children on his death in September 1980.

He apologized and said he was willing "to appear before tax authorities, or if needed, judicial authorities," to explain matters.

Four days after he made the admission, Pujol was stripped of his pension as well as he office, official car and chauffeur.

His fall comes as the Catalan government plans to hold a referendum on independence from Spain on November 9, putting it at odds with the national government which insists the move is illegal.