THE National court (AN) set for March 2026 the oral trial of retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and two journalists of the so-called The Dina affair‘, in which the journey of the telephone card of the former Podemos councilor, Dina Bousselham, was investigated since the theft of her cell phone in 2015 until some of the information he contained be published in the media.
In a judgment, the court declared from March 16 to 19 of that year, the sessions of the oral viewpostponing to later dates the choice of the seat of the National Tribunal where it will be held.
It should be remembered that the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office requests 5 years in prison for Villarejo and 3 for the two accused journalists, accusing all three of the crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets with distribution to third parties. It is also interesting, with regard to civil liability, that the three compensate jointly and in equal shares with former Podemos advisor with an amount of 5,000 euros and Pablo Iglesias with 1,000 euros.
In the order by which he accepted the opening of an oral trial, collected by Europa Press, the former president of the Central Investigating Court number 6 Manuel García Castellón collects the account of the events from the prosecutor, the theft at Ikea in Alcorcón of the property of the former advisor and her then partner on November 1, 2015 until the appearance of part of the contents of Dina’s cell phone in the media in 2016.
In its letter, Anticorruption indicates that on January 19, 2016, an anonymous person presented himself at the headquarters of the Zeta Group an envelope containing micro SD card who was the one who had been connected to the stolen cell phone and was examined by journalists, as well as by a manager and the group’s president Antonio Asensio.
The prosecution explains that it is the latter who makes the decision to don’t publish anything about it and contacted Iglesias, believing the card “could belong to him.”
“Journalists in your circle of trust”
After this delivery to Iglesias, after viewing it at the publisher’s headquarters, prosecutors explain that between January and April 2016, the accused journalists were contacted by Villarejowhich was a “usual” source, and they gave him a copy of this micro SD card “knowing that it was an active police officer of the National Police”.
Prosecutors point out that the two journalists knew that the card they gave to Villarejo “contained files with internal documents of the Podemos partyvarious bank details, video and audio files, and (…) documents of an intimate and personal nature”, including photos of the former advisor half-naked. They also knew that on the map there were Telegram groups in which members participated of the party leadership.
The letter explains that the commissioner, “acting by abusing his functions linked to police intelligence”, copies and gave them “to journalists in your circle of trust so that this prepares and publishes various information discrediting Podemos and (…) Iglesias.
Next, prosecutors cite a series of articles from up to two digital media outlets as evidence that the content from the cell phone stolen in 2015 was actually published throughout 2016.
