The plenary session of the Chamber on October 6 will give the definitive green light so that the Supreme Court can investigate the PP deputy
The Commission of the Statute of the Deputy has approved this Tuesday a favorable opinion to the granting of the petition requested by the supreme courtor to investigate the PP deputy Alberto Casero and has agreed to refer the matter to the plenary session of Congresswhere it is expected to be put to the vote on October 6.
As reported to Europa Press by parliamentary sources, the petition has come forward unanimously from all the groups present in this commission, which always meets behind closed doors. The PSOE was not present at the meeting, since its only representative in this commission, Adriana Lastra, who is the president, is on leave due to a high-risk pregnant woman. The representative of Ciudadanos, Miguel Gutiérrez, has not attended either.
Has not filed any claims
The commission had given a deadline to Casero until this Monday to present his allegationsbut the ‘popular’ deputy, to whom the Supreme Court blames evidence of crime for contracts signed when he was mayor of Trujillo (Cáceres), has refused to provide his version.
According to the Regulations of the Congress, the Commission of the Statute of the Deputy has a maximum of 30 business days to submit a proposal to the Plenary of the Chamber, but the decision of the affected party not to present allegations has allowed the process to be accelerated.
That’s the way it is, The forecast is that the Plenary of Congress definitively approve the granting of the request on October 6thus giving free rein to the Supreme Court to investigate Casero.
Specifically, the magistrate Andrés Palomo wants the request to proceed criminally against the PP deputy when he sees rational indications of alleged crimes of prevarication and embezzlement, for certain agreements and service contracts that he made as mayor.
The deputy from Extremadura, a close collaborator of the former general secretary of the PP Teodoro García Egea, who made headlines for his mistake that allowed to approve the labor reform, was precisely the representative of the PP in the commission that studies the petitions until he was relieved in the changes introduced in the Popular Group after the arrival of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in Genoa. Now the spokesperson is in the hands of Ángel Luis González.
The entire procedure, behind closed doors
The debate and voting of the petitions, both in the Commission of the Statute of the Deputy and in the Plenary Session of the Congress, takes place behind closed doors and without transparency. The deputies are also not obliged to follow voting instructions since their vote is secret. Only the result is disclosed.
Within eight days, counted from the agreement of the plenary session of the Chamber on the granting or denial of the requested authorization, Batet will transfer it to the judicial authority, advising it of the obligation to communicate to the Chamber the orders and sentences that are issued and personally affect the deputy.
the supplication shall be understood as denied if the Chamber has not ruled within sixty calendar dayscomputed during the session period, from the day following receipt of the request.
So far, Congress has approved 32 supplications and has rejected 14 (two of them about the same deputy). The last refusal of the Congress dates from 1988 and refers to a dispute over the right to honor that had as protagonist the former socialist minister José Barrionuevo and the brother of an ETA member (the now repentant Soares Gamboa) for including his photos on Interior posters.
32 requests granted, the last one for Borràs
The last one that came out ahead was the plea from the Junts spokeswoman, Laura Borrasin June 2020, giving the green light to the Supreme Court to fShe was investigated for crimes of fraud against the Administration, embezzlement of public funds and false documents during her time as director of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC).
In a secret vote, the request went ahead with 293 yeses from deputies from the PSOE, PP, Vox, United We Can and Citizens; against the 14 that add Junts and the PNV and five abstentions were also registered.
In previous legislatures, three PP deputies –Vicente Ferrer, Arsenio Pacheco and Nacho Uriarte– who had tested positive at the wheel and the previous one was the one who gave free rein to investigate the also ‘popular’ Jesús Merino for the Gurtel case. That of the former socialist counselor José Antonio Viera, investigated by the ERE, did not complete the process due to the resignation of the affected party.
In addition, among those granted stand out those of the former socialist minister José Barrionuevo for the ‘GAL case’ or those of the deputies of Herri Batasuna Jon IdígorasFrancisco Letamendía and Antxón Ibarguren for the incidents that occurred in 1981 at the Guernica Assembly House, where several members of that coalition staged protests in an act presided over by the King and Queen.