A prominent former Spanish prosecutor has blamed the untimely death of the country’s Attorney General on an age old scapegoat - “the Jews”.

In a post on his blog Professor Ramiro Grau, who formerly served as the prosecutor of the High Court of Justice in the Aragon region of Spain, discussed the death of José Manuel Maza, who passed away last week while on a visit to Argentina after being admitted to intensive care with a kidney infection.

“My nephrologist friends tell me that it is a strange death, and that with a good treatment it is very difficult that an infection, no matter how strong, can take one ahead so quickly”, Prof Grau wrote.

He went on to say that “the Attorney General of the State [Mr Maza]… was a key piece in stopping the Catalan separatist process… possibly even uncomfortable for a part of the government, [which was] more interested in friendly compromises with the independentistas, that in applying the Law and the Law: the Constitution, the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, and the Penal Code.”

“And if we join the interest of some states in Catalonia to become a new country, for example Israel (however much its president has said otherwise), and the existence of a large colony of Jews in Argentina - there are those who argue that there those who really rule are the Jews-, it would not hurt to do the autopsy to check and verify the real causes of his death .”

There is no evidence to suggest that Israel has shown any particular enthusiasm for the establishment of a separate Catalonian state. Furthermore, key Catalonian Independence politicians are vocal supporters of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaign against Israel, making it even more unlikely that the Israeli government would sympathise with their other aims.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has called for the Argentinean government to “protest vigorously to Madrid” regarding Prof Grau, with the centre’s representative for Latin America, Dr. Ariel Gelblung, describing the remarks as having “endangered the country´s Jewish community and thereby maligned Argentina”

Dr Shimon Samuels, director of international relations at the Wiesenthal Centre, described Prof Grau’s comments as “an extreme example of obsessive antisemitism” and urged Spain´s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, “to condemn Grau and take measures to strip him of his honours and State pension as the price for his hatemongering.”