Is it inconceivable that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor opposes the reopening of the ‘Kitchen case’ in light of the new evidence that the latest audios, known until now, of conversations between the then general secretary of the PP, María Dolores de Cospedal, can provide? and curator José Villarejo in 2013, aimed at preventing the publication of the ‘Bárcenas papers’ and of those of 2017, in which Cospedal, then Minister of Defense apart from General Secretary of the PP, speaks with the then former commissioner, after the ‘Operation Kitchen’ was completed?
It has not been the Prosecutor’s Office that has requested to clarify the situation of the new audios. The popular accusation of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in the piece Kitchen has requested on Friday 20 that the central court number 6 of the National Court the reopening of the case to clarify the situation of new evidence unknown to the parties. And, if any, its incorporation.
Are these audios part of the performances? Is it audio that has not been decrypted yet? Is it appropriate to make an expert report on its content? Judge Manuel García-Castellón has asked the Anticorruption Prosecutor this week his position regarding the PSOE brief. In other terms, Are the prosecutors going to adhere to the request that the audios be incorporated, if they exist in the case, into the summary?
“However, the first thing that should be discerned is whether there is any irregularity. Namely, if the audios exist, why has said material not been known during the investigation of the case and is now coming out as a result of a leak to the media? & rdquor ;, point out prosecutors consulted. On other occasions, Judge García Castellón, faced with similar circumstances, has immediately addressed the media and sent a commission to obtain a copy of what was published. He now he has decided to ask the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.
If the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor already appealed in a ninety-page letter what it described as a “surprising” closure of the investigations; and “in false & rdquor ;, an appeal that was dismissed by the third section of the Criminal Court of the National Court, the appearance of new evidence reinforces its position in favor of continuing to investigate the involvement of the Popular Party, personified in the general secretary of the PP , Maria Dolores de Cospedal.
In confirming Judge García-Castellón’s closing decision, the magistrates of the third section pointed out that the meetings between Cospedal and Villarejo on the ‘Gürtel case’ had taken place long before 2013, when ‘Operation Kitchen’ began (2013-2016 ), and that the evidence against her was not “unequivocal & rdquor; to the point of maintaining his accusation.
The prosecutors requested the extension of the investigation. In their appeal, they pointed out that after the statements made by Cospedal and her husband, Ignacio López del Hierro, as defendants, “none of the procedures carried out subsequently has disproved those indications, much less their respective judicial statements. The statements of her chief of staff, José Luis Ortíz Grande, who stated repeatedly and without hesitation that the meetings held [con Villarejo para el seguimiento del ‘caso Gürtel’ y los documentos en poder de Bárcenas] by the investigated Cospedal were many more than the three or four recognized by Cospedal and, what is more relevant, that most of the meetings, and in any case the first one took place at the initiative of his boss”.
The known audios now confirm that the statements made by Cospedal’s chief of staff were true. That is her contacts with Villarejo were much more frequent than she declared. Moreover, in 2017, one of the audios, published in the newspaper ‘El País’ and in the digital newspaper ‘Fuentes Informadas’, when Cospedal was Minister of Defense as well as General Secretary of the PP, both speak of the need to put an end to the then director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), Félix Sanz Roldán.
-Villarejo: “We have to achieve this, release this guy [Sanz Roldán]”
-Cospedal: “First let go of this guy and second get rid of [del fiscal] Grinda. I already told you [al fiscal general del Estado José Manuel] Mace & rdquor ;.
-Villarejo: “That’s right, that’s very important. That is a cancer. Because Grinda also has contaminated [al fiscal Juan José] Pink and has several. [De] everything that happens there [en Anticorrupción] The Generalissimo has a copy [Sanz Roldán] at two minutes. All operations that may harm you, Ignacio [López del Hierro], everything that is not protecting the little girl [la vicepresidenta Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría] and if they could give a cut to the president [Rajoy] I would give it to him”
-Cospedal: “Yessss & rdquor ;.
-Villarejo: “Because they go to harassment and demolition, they want to wear down to appear the girl is as salvadοra & rdquor ;.
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In his filing order, the judge questioned the evidence against Cospedal for his meetings with Villarejo. “You cannot criminalize the right of assembly & rdquor ;, argued García-Castellón.
However, precisely the indications from the Gürtel investigation first and the ‘Bárcenas papers’ later, the ‘Operation Kitchen’ later and the 2017 conversations, are revealing a permanent collaboration over time, between 2009 and 2017, between Cospedal and Villarejo. A relationship that, as can be inferred from the reproduced dialogue, addressed issues such as ending prosecutors based on the objectives shared by both, Minister of Defense-General Secretary of the PP and commissioner in service and later retired.