On February 21, the sentimental partner of the then mayor of Maracena (Granada, population 22,293) arrested and threatened Vanesa Romero, a socialist councilwoman who had a strained relationship with the councilwoman for two hours. Both she and the kidnapper, Pedro Gómez, accused former mayor Berta Linares, mayor Antonio García Leyva and former mayor Noel López of instigating the kidnapping before the judge. Although they presented no evidence of this and the investigations could not prove anything either, the judge took the allegations very seriously. Gómez, who has been diagnosed with a mental illness, told police that there was a meeting between him and the three politicians to plan the kidnapping. He even named the location, which was later denied by the owner of the inn where the meeting allegedly took place.
This Wednesday, Linares, 44, testified before the head of Granada’s Investigative Court No. 5 to present her version of the facts. In an interview with this newspaper, the former mayor insists that this tripartite meeting never took place. “We never met.” Given the possibility that someone aware of the difficulties in Linares and Romero’s relationship might have made a joking remark that the kidnapper would have taken seriously, he is blunt: “There was never a meeting and there never was a comment.” that sense. . He couldn’t get me or those around me to feel that something had to be done with the councilwoman.”
The then mayor met the kidnapper on the same day the events took place, while Romero remained locked in the trunk of the vehicle used for the kidnapping, but later denied seeing him. “The Civil Guard and my lawyer advised me not to say it,” he says now. A video recording showed that he was indeed seen with his partner for a moment. Linares tells this newspaper that at the time, I was “visiting people’s homes with a colleague from the city council, which we used to do a lot in the past.” my ex-husband might have been; It was all very strange. “As we were about to get in the car – she continues with her story of February 21 – my partner saw Pedro Gómez. I walked over to greet him and as I crossed I lost sight of him.” Berta Linares says her ex-partner was “very handy” so she imagined “he was at the hardware store next door was”. In fact, it later turned out that Gómez went there to buy a knife and duct tape. “When I left the store,” he continues, “I told him about Vanesa’s disappearance and about my ex.” He didn’t say or show anything weird. We arranged to meet later and that was it. That appointment, he summarizes, “was a fluke and that’s all.”
Since then, Berta Linares has not spoken to her ex-partner or the kidnapped councilwoman. He called her “several times” but didn’t “pick up the phone,” he claims. Linares admits he didn’t have a fluid relationship with her: “He just came from Noel’s team — who had resigned as mayor in the summer of 2022 to become an Andalusian MP — and it’s true that he didn’t want to carry my team on to that.” [las elecciones de] 28M, but as happened to others who didn’t complain,” he says. As to the possibility that Romero had documents he used to attack Linares and his team over alleged urban irregularities in the City Council’s approval of a gas station, Linares points out, “He never told me anything or gave me any irregularities like.” e.g. B. accused of irregularities.” because I couldn’t tell him that I wouldn’t put myself on the lists either.
Romero admitted before the judge that he had spent several years photocopying municipal records since the last legislative session. After the kidnapping, her husband told the press that he did it “just in case”. “The strange thing is that, for example, in the case of the gas station that she accuses us of of irregularities, she saw the process through from start to finish. And it turns out she was the one who got hold of some papers that she didn’t put on file,” says Linares.
The former mayor is confident that she can be exonerated in a few weeks. “My statement made it clear that we had nothing to do with it and I have complete peace of mind.” Furthermore, apart from the fact that there is no evidence against her, he adds: “None of the consequences of the kidnapping helped me “Everything that comes out of it hurt me,” he says. The lifting of the secret summary of the case three days after the local elections at which allegations were leveled against them ended the hopes of the local PSOE, based on a poll that gave their party an “absolute majority with between 11 and 12 councillors”, he clarified.Following the elections, Linares did not take up her post as councillor, although she remains her party’s local secretary.The scandal led to Noel López resigning from his position as number three in the Andalusian PSOE.
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“The judge was very picky, but that’s okay, so I could tell everything,” Linares concludes after issuing a statement followed by that of Councilor García Leyva. The judge is expected to decide within the next few days whether new action needs to be taken in relation to the case.
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