José Luis Ábalos assumes that the next step in the investigation into the so-called “Koldo case” scandal will be his own indictment and warns that, even in that case, he does not plan to submit his file as a deputy to Congress. “I am not going to leave the seat because I have to defend myself. Today it happens to me but tomorrow it could happen to someone else. “This public lynching and disregard for procedural guarantees could happen to the next person.”
In an interview with Onda Cero this Monday, the former “number three” of the Socialist Party and Minister of Transport once again defended his innocence. “Those who try to reach an agreement with the prosecution accept their guilt and I have done nothing. They want to charge me, they will try, but we will see what the Supreme Court says. It is clear that all this research is for me. They even know the name of my partner, where I go, what I do. And no one says the word “allegedly” here. “It is a lynching,” he denounced.
Ábalos directly pointed to the government he was part of as responsible for this lynching, in reference to the internal investigation undertaken by the ministry of the current head of Transport, Óscar Puente. “If there is a criminal investigation, opening another internal investigation can contaminate the first one. And there is something that catches my attention: how can a report from the Administration call into question the report of the Court of Auditors? “They contradict the very complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office and which promotes this whole investigation,” he defended himself.
He was also questioned about some recently leaked and published emails regarding José Luis Ábalos’ business trips as head of the Ministry of Transport and the presence of a woman who accompanied him. The former socialist leader assured that this person was his partner at the time and that all the expenses related to these trips were borne by him. “They were always my responsibility, it was never paid with public money,” he assured.
Regarding the published email in which the details of expenses related to meals and travel can be seen, and which the woman allegedly claimed from him, Ábalos assured that it was a “fake email”. “I have the emails and I created them, it was a trap to catch a person and due to life circumstances it is now being used in this way, but it is from 2019 and has nothing to do with the pandemic. This person is not asking me for anything and I have not paid anything, but they have managed to make it viral and they are campaigns with a lot of contempt,” he said in the interview.
This Monday, the judge in charge of the “Koldo case” rejected the request of the far-right association Iustitia Europa to indict him for the conclusions of the internal investigation carried out by the Ministry of Transport of Óscar Puente. For the moment, the magistrate is awaiting the conclusions of a recent report by the UCO resulting from the searches carried out at Koldo García’s personal home.
The investigating judge also requested a report from the prosecution to determine whether or not it is appropriate for José Luis Ábalos to also appear in the case as an injured party, as he himself requested.
