The judge of the National Court José Luis Calama has commissioned a preliminary appraisal of the numerous jewels found during the police search on May 19 in the office of the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, according to Efe.
The magistrate investigating the so-called Plus Ultra case has requested a preliminary analysis from a jeweler to determine the “nature, authenticity and economic value (replacement), manufacturer (jeweler’s stamp/mark) and approximate date of manufacture” of the jewels found.
All this, according to the judge’s order made public this Wednesday, without prejudice to a subsequent expert appraisal that includes other analytical data of interest.
The former president’s secretary stated that the jewels were the result of an inheritance
The judge has commissioned the appraisal to the historic jeweler Ansorena, after an oath or promise, and has ordered that the analysis be properly documented by the Central Unit of Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) of the Police, “with expression of all the necessary requirements to comply with the chain of custody.”
Calama makes this decision within the framework of the case in which he charged the former Prime Minister, whom he places at the “apex” of an alleged influence network in favor of the airline Plus Ultra, supposedly in exchange for economic benefits that, according to the judge’s thesis, would be channeled to him and his environment.
Zapatero, who will testify on June 17 and 18 at the National Court, attributed the jewels to inheritances from his mother and mother-in-law and unspecified gifts. He maintains that they were in his office because they lived in a rented house that did not have a safe, according to what the president of the Ateneo Luis Arroyo, who worked with Zapatero in Moncloa, conveyed to EFE.
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In that search of Zapatero’s office, on Ferraz street in Madrid, the agents found numerous pieces of jewelry in the safe of an office.
Specifically, they photographed and detailed in their police report three silver necklaces – one with 13 blue stones, another with five garnet-colored stones, and the third with green stones -; three silver bracelets with stones of different colors and two earrings and a ring with green stones, as well as two sets of silver earrings and rings, another set of three green necklaces, a golden and silver cross, and two golden bracelets.
They also found three watches, one of the brand Krono with an inscription “your companions,” another brand Dogna, and another Lorenz Theatre.
In a bag, with the inscription Presidency of the Government, the agents also found three pairs of golden earrings with white balls, a bracelet with white balls and green stone, a silver ring with a white ball, a golden Longines watch, and another Omega with a pendant with the number 13.
In that same bag, they also found a silver ring with a violet-colored stone, a golden and silver cross, a golden bracelet with a set of white stones, a golden necklace with three golden shapes, a golden pin, a golden chain, a silver cord, a white ball, and a golden oval-shaped earring.
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