General Francisco Espinosa, in prison for the “Mediator case”, in a 2020 picture in Logroño, when he was active and coordinating the GAR-SI SAHEL project. ABEL ALONSO (EFE)
Retired General of the Guardia Civil Francisco Espinosa Navas, suspected ringleader along with former PSOE MP Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, Tito Berni, who exposed the conspiracy in the Mediator case, has again asked Judge María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres for the instructions granted the cause to release him. In a letter available to EL PAÍS, the high command of the armed facility – which was the only one of the defendants to order preventive detention – again influences the arguments it had already put forward in its previous motion for freedom, including that its alleged ability to Changing evidence, an argument that led to his imprisonment, is not such. “It turns out not only has he been retired for more than two years, but after being the subject of public shaming and ridicule in a large number of media outlets, what influence can he have on anything or anyone?” His attorney stands out in the letter, in which he again describes his client as a “social corpse” because he was riddled with the scandal.
The request for release comes after the judge ruled last Saturday to postpone the date of testimony scheduled for next Friday by two witnesses, Javier Monzón and Adelaida PS, both linked to the general. The first, a former rally champion and current manager of a company, was one of the participants in the chat called “Team A” (in reference to an old TV series) on the WhatsApp messaging application, in which, in addition to Espinosa, Miguel Ángel Ramírez war (President of the UD Las Palmas and relative of the second witness), Eustasio López (also a businessman) and a High Command of the Guardia Civil in the Canary Islands also attended. Adelaida P. is the woman the general allegedly had a sentimental relationship with, and whom he referred to as a “flying pussy” in conversations with other accomplices.
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In his brief, Espinosa’s attorney believes that the delay in making these two statements is detrimental to his client, as it also means a delay in investigating the case while he is still in custody, a situation that he says is “taking longer.” than desired and of what is procedurally reasonable”. In this sense, the defense lawyer recalls that the investigations have lasted more than a year and that the indications contained in the summary “neither in their importance nor in their magnitude indicate the possible commission of particularly serious crimes”. He also emphasizes his client’s “completely” cooperative attitude both towards the internal service officials, to whom he pointed out the place where he kept more than 60,000 euros in bundles of bills at his home and handed him the keys to his mobile phones and computer equipment , as directed by the court, for answering the judge’s and prosecutor’s questions “without reluctance and without ambiguity”.
For all these reasons, the lawyer wonders why his client is the only one of the defendants who has been sentenced to prison. “Is it fair that Mr. Espinosa should remain in prison while others involved exploit and use this process to become ‘famous’?” the letter asks, in a clear reference to Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, the conspiracy’s suspected facilitator Audio and image files revealed the entire scandal. Navarro Tacoronte arrived to travel to Madrid and see himself during sessions of Vox’s no-confidence motion against the government in Congress last week. For all these reasons he is demanding the release of the High Command of the Guardia Civil.
This is the second time the general has requested his release. On February 26, his defense already submitted a letter to the same effect, although in it he sharply accused, much more comprehensively, the mediator in the case, which he accused of having created a “parallel fiction”, a “bizarre scaffolding”. a fabled reality” into which both he and the accused businessmen are said to have fallen. Espinosa, who in this letter presented himself as a “social corpse” due to the media coverage of his case, tried to refute the evidence gathered by the investigations against him in the case, not always with success.
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In fact, he was unable to justify the origin of all the funds found hidden in his apartment and admitted that he had an account in Belgium of which the tax authorities were unaware, although he reported irregularities in each of these incidents denied . Days later, the judge denied his request and kept him in jail. Espinosa remains locked in a cell in the security force module of Estremera Prison.