Businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés has appealed the search of his home and the headquarters of his companies, claiming that the judge in the “Begoña Gómez case”, Juan Carlos Peinado, ordered it without having “suspicion or indication of the commission of criminal acts”, causing what he considers a “flagrant violation” of his rights as an investigator.
In a letter collected by Europa Press, the businessman’s defense asks the Provincial Court of Madrid to annul the order by which the magistrate gave the green light to the entry and search that took place at the headquarters of his company and at his home on August 23 “for not having complied with the legal and jurisprudential requirements for the adoption of such a heavy measure.”
It was last Friday when agents of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard raided the private home of Barrabés and the company Innova Next, located in Madrid. In mid-July, Judge Peinado changed Barrabés’ status from witness to defendant, from whom he took a statement after the first complaint filed by Manos Limpies against the wife of the President of the Government, Begoña Gómez, for alleged crimes of influence peddling and corruption in business.
Barrabés’ representation considers that “the principle of speciality was violated by accepting a prospective investigation without a minimally objective basis.” “The principles of exception and necessity were violated by adopting the most severe measure that could have been obtained by much less damaging means,” he emphasizes.
Furthermore, his lawyer added that “the principle of proportionality was violated because the sacrifice of the interests at stake is not far from being greater than the benefit hoped to obtain” by the judge.
The letter stresses that it is “obvious that there were other alternative means of obtaining information or documents.” “The court could have made any request to Innova Next, it could have obtained the information from public sources, it could have been interested in the information from the transparency portal,” it lists.
His lawyer also claims that Judge Peinado “could have asked” Barrabés “to provide his cell phone as a preliminary measure to sending the police to the hospital to intervene.”
Defense denies there are signs of a crime
The defense claims that the entry and search order “radically disregards” the Code of Criminal Procedure, which determines that a measure of this type “is linked to the investigation of a specific crime.”
In the opinion of the businessman’s representation, “the only thing that is accredited by such a generic mandate” from the judge “is the prospective nature of the present investigation, in which it is planned to seize everything related to an alleged crime of which there is not the slightest allusion to its commission.
Barrabés’ lawyer insists that “there is no indication of the commission of a crime of influence peddling or corruption in the business” while “the first contract of a significant economic amount that was awarded to Innova Next and that is being investigated in these actions dates back to 2017, it was awarded by the Madrid City Council and two years before Barrabés met Gómez and before her husband became president of the government.
Faced with these allegations “and taking into account the manifest lack of motivation suffered by the order and the circumstances in which the entry and search were carried out”, his lawyer asks the Madrid court “to issue a resolution recognizing the nullity of the resolution that agrees on the entry and registration procedure and its extension.
The document also stresses that it is “obvious that there were other alternative means of obtaining information or documents.” “The court could have made any request to Innova Next, it could have obtained the information from public sources, it could have been interested in the information from the transparency portal,” it lists.
His lawyer also claims that Judge Peinado “could have asked” Barrabés “to provide his cell phone as a preliminary measure to sending the police to the hospital to intervene.”
