POLITICAL figures in Catalonia have called for an inquiry into allegations that Spain’s security services (CNI) were involved in orchestrating the 2017 terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils in which 16 people died.

The claims made by former police commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo have mostly been greeted with derision – he is currently on trial in what is known as the Tandem case, which is alleged to involve extortion, revealing secrets and forgery, and has made other accusations in the past.

He followed up his claims by saying he had evidence to back them up in his files and notes, which he said were secret.

Villarejo said he had asked for them to be made public, adding: “The most obvious proof of all is that they don't want to give me my files.”

He said the then CNI chief Feliz Sanz Roldan had wanted to give Catalonia a “fright” before the October 2017 referendum, so it felt the need for Spain’s protection.

Catalan President Pere Aragones asked his government’s legal team to review Villarejo’s remarks, adding: “If his words are true, we need an explanation now.”

Laura Borras, speaker of the Catalan parliament, said its legal team should take the matter to the public prosecutor.

She said: “It is absolutely essential to know the truth. Providing transparency to such a serious attack is crucial.

“Hiding information under the premise of official secrecy does not bring credibility; on the contrary, it discredits it.”

Since the attacks, which were carried out by a jihadist cell, politicians have urged Spain to investigate alleged links between the CNI and the imam who masterminded them Abdelbaki es Satty.

Six parties in Spain’s Congress want a parliamentary committee to be convened on the issue and have requested an inquiry commission be set up into Villarejo’s statements.

Gabriel Rufian, spokesperson in the Spanish Congress for the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), said his party would reactivate the “filed and vetoed” commissions into the attacks.

Carles Puigdemont, who was Catalan president in 2017, said Spain should be accountable for the attacks “for its rejection to investigate” the allegations.

However, Teresa Cunillera, the Spanish government’s delegate to Catalonia, said Villarejo “has no credibility”.

She said: “He has a long history of trying to cast shadows of suspicion without ever providing evidence … the insinuations have no logical or material basis.”

Alicia Romero, spokesperson for the Catalan Socialists, dismissed the claims as a “conspiracy theory” from someone who “does not have to tell the truth during a trial and who only wants to make noise”.