Mariano Rajoy and Jorge Fernández Díaz, during the presentation of his book in October 2019 in Madrid.Javier Lizón (EFE)
The PSOE, which emerged as a popular accusation in the Kitchen case, has requested for the second time that the PP be in the dock as a lucrative participant in the parapolice espionage operation against the former People’s Treasurer Luis Bárcenas, for which the first leadership of the Ministry was in charge of the Interior the government of Mariano Rajoy. The Socialists, in an appeal against the recent order opening the hearing of Judge Manuel García-Castellón, which rejected this request, argue that “the main beneficiary” of this operation was precisely the conservative formation that was the spy “with public funds “ financed and therefore has to pay for it financially. The PP, currently led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has accumulated three convictions against this legal entity, all for benefiting from the criminal activities related to the Belt Plot.
In its new letter, to which EL PAÍS had access, the PSOE concludes that the conservative formation has benefited doubly from Operation Kitchen. On the one hand, it “complicated the actions of the judiciary”, referring to the fact that the espionage against Bárcenas was allegedly aimed at preventing compromising documents for those responsible for him from reaching the National Court on the irregularities in his financing that were being investigated there in the case . Belt. And on the other hand, its sponsors, senior Interior Ministry officials, diverted “public funds and resources” to finance it, allowing the party to save on the costs that would have been associated with launching an operation of this kind.
The letter does not specify the figure to which the popular parties should respond, since the part of public funds diverted from the reserved funds was indeed realized – among other expenses, more than 50,000 euros were paid to the then driver of Bárcenas for his alleged collaboration in the area Espionage―, another corresponds to the cost to the state treasury of the use of police agents to monitor the former treasurer and his wife Rosalía Iglesias between July and October 2013 and January and February 2014.
The PSOE points out that at least 15 agents were involved in the espionage on behalf of their superiors, without knowing that it was an illegal operation, although it recalls that the prosecutor’s office increases this number to 70. Therefore, in their letter, the Socialists demand that the Ministry of the Interior certify the cost of these human resources used “to carry out this illegal police intelligence operation” in order to claim them also from the PP, together with the diverted reserved funds.
The PSOE’s first demand for the PP to sit on the bench as a lucrative participant in the Kitchen case came in the indictment it presented in October last year. However, in his recent order opening the hearing, Judge García-Castellón rejected the attempt to bring the conservative party to court, since the PSOE application was submitted “ex novo”, that is, for the first time. and the case is already closed.
According to the judge’s remarks in this court order, “up to this point” no action “in this sense” had been brought against the party and, citing the Supreme Court doctrine, he concluded that it was therefore “untimely “acted. with regard to the time of implementation “without specifying the amount or the specific facts and actions from which the said responsibility arises.” The judge established subsidiary civil liability of the general state administration in the event that the persons under investigation were convicted.
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In this order, García-Castellón also agreed to impose a civil liability bond of 120,000 euros on Fernández Díaz; for his number two in the ministry, the former foreign minister Francisco Martínez, and for the former head of police operations, Commissioner Eugenio Pino; as well as 100,000 euros for the commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and the former Bárcenas driver Sergio Ríos; 20,000 euros for Commissioner Andrés Gómez Gordo, 3,000 euros for the rest, except for the police commander Enrique García Castaño, who was set at 2,000 euros.
The anti-corruption public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against eight defendants. Therefore, he requests 19 years in prison for Villarejo; 15 years for Fernández Díaz, Martínez, Pino and Gómez Gordo; 12 years and six months for García Castaño – although all proceedings against this commissioner are on hold after a stroke -; 12 years, five months and 15 days for Ríos and two and a half years for Commissioner Marcelino Martín Blas. These sentences are very far from those proposed by Bárcenas himself in his writings – who is demanding 41 years in prison for almost everyone involved, including Fernández Díaz, Martínez and commissioners Pino and Villarejo – and from the accusations of Podemos – which he also calls for 41 years in prison for the leadership of the Interior Ministry – and the PSOE – which proposes 47 years in prison for the former minister and more than 30 years for the other defendants.
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