Mango founder's secretary tells Martorell court no serious rift with son Jonathan

Testimony resumes in Martorell

Witness testimony in the case against Jonathan Andic resumed on Thursday, 12 November 2026, at the court in Martorell, near Barcelona. The judge is investigating him for homicide over the death of his father, Isak Andic, the founder of Mango, who died after falling down a slope on a mountain path in Montserrat on 14 December 2024. About thirty witnesses are due to appear over the coming weeks, several of them leading figures in Catalonia's business elite. Their accounts will help the judge decide whether to send the case to trial before a jury. Hearings set for Tuesday and Wednesday were postponed because of a scheduling problem for the prosecutor and a general strike.

The secretary's account

Isak Andic's secretary, who worked alongside him every day for two decades and kept his diary, gave evidence first. She told the judge she did not perceive a bad relationship between father and son, which runs against the view held by the Mossos d'Esquadra and the judge that there were relevant disagreements. Her diary also included personal and family appointments, so her account reaches beyond the business calendar. She is the employee who received a WhatsApp message from Jonathan Andic when his phone was stolen during a short trip to Quito, Ecuador, which makes her testimony central to the dispute over the phone.

Quito trip and the stolen phone

Jonathan Andic made an unscheduled three-day trip to Quito from 24 to 26 March 2025, a journey that was not in the diary and that the secretary did not know about. During the trip his mobile phone was stolen, and he sent her a WhatsApp message through the computer version of the app to tell her. He also asked her to provide a new company phone when he returned to Catalonia. According to the Mossos, the theft could have been a ploy to get rid of the phone. When police asked for it, Andic handed them his replacement phone. The stolen device held several messages from the suspect that officers could not recover, because no backup had been made. The judge noted that the trip coincided in time with media reports on the reopening of the investigation into Isak Andic's death.

Police at the scene

Four Mossos d'Esquadra officers also testified on Thursday: a sergeant and three agents from the citizen security unit at the Martorell police station. They were the first to reach the scene after the emergency call about the fall, drew up the initial police report and took Jonathan Andic's statement. They were also the first officers to see his emotional state after the incident. Their initial conclusion was that the fall had been accidental. One of them gave evidence for about 40 minutes, while the other three were briefer.

Next witnesses and the case ahead

On Friday, 13 November, the court is scheduled to hear a former occasional driver of Isak Andic and two officers from the Mountain Unit who attended the fall site on the Les Feixades path. An excursionist who was present that day is also called. Sources cited by ABC say he saw and heard nothing, but he can describe the state of the path and the weather. José Crehueras, chairman of Grupo Planeta and Atresmedia and one of Andic's three executors, was due to testify on Wednesday, but his appearance was postponed with no new date. Mango's CEO Toni Ruiz and company executive Daniel López have also been summoned. In October 2025 the three men had published a letter in La Razón that backed Jonathan's presumption of innocence.

Background to the charge

Jonathan Andic was detained in May 2026 and released after paying a bail of 1 million euros. The judge's order cited an alleged 'obsession with money' that led him to ask his father for an inheritance during his lifetime. Miquel Roca, a witness proposed by the defence, is due to testify in December. Isak Andic had asked him to set up a philanthropic foundation, and he is expected to describe its board of trustees and whether its creation would change the family inheritance.