The Provincial Court of Valencia sentenced ten years and five months in prison for former PP minister Eduardo Zaplana as the perpetrator of the crimes of money laundering, corruption and falsification of commercial documents and also imposes a fine of 25 million euros on him, on the understanding that he has a fortune hidden abroad and establishes a special disqualification of eight years and nine months for the offense of administrative procrastination.
Immediately afterwards, Eduardo Zaplana sent a statement in which the former president expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision taken this Tuesday by the Fourth Section of the Provincial Court of Valencia. “I can only express my disappointment at having been convicted on the basis of well-founded evidence in pacts and opaque agreements and without any objective proof on my participation in the events of which I was accused,” he said.
He also stressed that despite the conviction “I continue to trust Justice” and it is certain that “will recognize the unfounded nature of the accusations”. He added that he would appeal to all necessary authorities and that he welcomed the acquittal of the eight accused in the plot.
“At this moment, I am particularly happy with the acquittal of all those whose only crime was to have been my friends or collaborators and who had to endure an equally unjust accusation and endure for many years the threat of a criminal conviction without any basis,” he concluded.
The judgment, which absolves Zaplana and the rest of the people accused of the crime of belonging to a criminal group, assured that the conduct of the former president of the Valencian Generalitat was “particularly reprehensible”. The decision considers that Zaplana and his chief of staff collected the commissions from the rewards of the ITV privatization process and concealed the money obtained in funds in the name of a nominee located in Andorra and Luxembourg of which he was the “beneficial owner or last beneficiary”.
