A Benidorm court did not extend the instruction and the Court of Alicante annulled the summons for those involved to testify as it was out of time
A judicial error to the not extend the instruction period of the proceedings opened by the alleged plot of money laundering of the Russian mafia in Alicante and the Balearic Islands has caused the free dismissal for 18 involved having been summoned after the deadline to declare as investigated in the Benidorm Court of Instruction number 1. The head magistrate of this body has issued this week an order where she agrees on the free dismissal and file of the proceedings for 18 investigated in the case, including two Russian citizens who were not arrested and are considered by the Police to be two of the main people involved in the plot, as they are the ones who allegedly maintain close ties with Russian organized crime and allegedly channel the money to Spain. to whiten.
The case has also been filed for a Civil Guard Brigade destined in benidorma lawyer from Valenciaa well-known Russian restaurateur who owns numerous restaurants and the parents of the Russian lawyer based in Altea who was arrested by the Police at the end of 2020, who is currently being investigated in the case.
This file is added to those previously agreed by the magistrate last February. First was the provisional dismissal for the Councilor for Security of Benidorm, Lorenzo Martínez Solaand a few days later for four more investigated, among them the former head of the Civil Guard in Altea and the former councilor of Altea Jaime Sellés. The judge considered that there was no evidence of the crimes for which they were investigating, such as influence peddling, and therefore ordered the dismissal for these five people, unlike this week’s order, which was agreed due to a judicial error after annul the Provincial Court of Alicante an order of the court of Benidorm in which 23 people were summoned to take their statements as investigated.
The citation was agreed outside the instruction deadlines and several defenses of those investigated appealed the decision before the Court, which notified in mid-September an order where it estimated the resources and annulled the summons.
The magistrate specifies in an order notified this Wednesday that after the decision of the Court and according to the Law of Criminal Procedure, it is appropriate to agree on the free dismissal and the filing of the proceedings, as well as the lifting of the precautionary measures imposed and the return of the effects intervened by the Police to these investigated, several of them defended by the lawyers Ignacio Gally, María Moreno, Aitor Esteban Gallastegui, Nadia El Harrak El Amiri and Alicia Grau Córdoba. According to judicial sources, since they did not appear in court to testify as investigators, they cannot be brought to trial and, therefore, only the filing decreed by the judge is allowed.
As stated in the filing order, several companies and fourteen other people are now being investigated in the case, although one of them is a Police inspector who has a separate piece open and is being processed outside the alleged money laundering network. Russian organized crime money. Of the remaining thirteen people, some of them have not even been summoned to testify in court, so presumably a free dismissal will also be agreed for them.
The controversy that has caused the current situation in the case dates back to September of last year, when the judge in the case issued an order to take statements from 23 investigated in the operation carried out in December 2020 by the National Police and the Office of the Prosecutor against Corruption and Organized Crime. However, on July 29 of that same year, two months earlier, the Benidorm court should have agreed to an extension of the investigation period and did not do so, neither ex officio the judge in the case, nor at the request of the accusation brought by the prosecution. Despite the warning from defense lawyers, who considered the diligence ordered null and void, those under investigation had to attend the court summons with their lawyers and most availed themselves of their right not to testify.
In the meantime, several defense attorneys appealed to the High Court the order in which they summoned those under investigation and the Second Section has now resolved that, according to the Supreme Court jurisprudenceall proceedings carried out outside the investigation period are considered null and void, and for this reason the judge has ordered the file for all those cited.
The operation of the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office was carried out in December 2020. 23 people were arrested in Altea, Benidorm, Ibiza, Finestrat, Alicante, Madrid, Tarragona and Valencia for their alleged involvement in a mafia money laundering network Russians who sought to infiltrate institutions.
Free dismissal for the mayor Lorenzo Martínez
The Benidorm court that investigates the alleged money laundering plot of the Russian mafia has issued another order this week where it estimates part of the appeal presented by the lawyer Francisco González and agrees to the free dismissal of the case regarding the Benidorm Security Councilor, Lawrence Martinez. The judge already decreed the provisional file in February and has now agreed on the definitive one after the appeal of Francisco González, who already warned the magistrate that his client was summoned outside the instruction period. He will now appeal to the Court for an express judicial declaration that the case does not harm the reputation of Lorenzo Martínez Sola.