The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office plans to ask National Court judge Ismael Moreno to submit to the Supreme Court a reasoned statement during the assessment criminal evidence against former transport minister and former PSOE organizational secretary José Luis Ábalos.
Sources from the Public Ministry told EL ESPAÑOL that the fight against corruption will not request that the entire Koldo case be referred to the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Courtbut considers that it is possible to separate the part relating to Ábalos with the evidence provided by the report of the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard known this week as well as the statements already made by former subordinates and the positions linked to the former minister.
The investigating judge of the National Court agreed on Thursday to seek the opinion of the prosecution on the elements provided by the investigators. In this same resolution, Moreno had already decided to ask Congress for the necessary measures certification accrediting the status of deputy of Ábaloswhich gives it jurisdiction before the Supreme Court.
This request was interpreted as an unequivocal step by the judge revealing his intention to submit to the Supreme Court the evidence that appeared against Ábalos, who could only avoid the reasoned presentation if he resigned from his position as deputy and handed over the report .
Although Ábalos proposed to make a voluntary statement as a witness before the instructor of the National Court, this summons would not be viable: when the judge has evidence against someone, he cannot call him to testify , a procedural condition that requires telling the truth and it is not allowed to be assisted by a lawyer.
As El Mundo reported and EL ESPAÑOL confirmed, the anti-corruption prosecution will rely on the recent UCO report to clarify the evidence against Ábalos.
The UCO report shows that the businessman Victor de Aldama paid Koldo García Izaguirre to maintain his influence within the Ministry of Transportation through alleged corrupt practices aimed at influencing decision-making bodies “through the use of Koldo-Ábalos pair“.
The researchers detail that José Luis Ábalos would be in charge of contractual procedures with Management Solutions and transmitted the instructions for the award of the mask market to the company linked to the commission agent Víctor de Aldama.
The UCO indicates that Aldama and Koldo García designated Ábalos as “the boss” on a regular basis, thus demonstrating the involvement of the former minister in the contracts awarded and his membership in the conspiracy.
The payments allegedly made by Aldama to Koldo García had “the main reason for being” power “maintain Aldama’s access to the councilor himself and to José Luis Ábalos”. The commission agent then obtained “his own profit and that of third parties” directly linked to him and his companies.
According to the UCO “The cash payments were accompanied by compensation also for Ábalos”among other things, the payment of a chalet in Cádiz and the house of a friend of the former minister in Madrid.
Since the National Court cannot initiate proceedings against an authorized person, the investigation into the assets and accounts of Ábalos, his communications with the conspiracy and in exchange for the compensation he allegedly received cannot do subject to investigation only in the context of a case in which Supreme Court.
