Former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz has witnessed from the front row of the dock at the Audiencia Nacional how the main evidence against him for his alleged involvement in Operation Kitchen has finally evaporated. The smoking gun that dragged him here are some messages supposedly sent to him by his former number two, Francisco Martínez, in which the latter told him that the operation to steal information from the former treasurer of the Popular Party, Luis Bárcenas, had been carried out “successfully,” with “all” of it being dumped. This Tuesday, a second notary — just like the first one did — has ratified that it is impossible to certify that the phone number Martínez had attributed to the contact saved as Fernández Díaz on his mobile actually belonged to the former Interior Minister.
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—I cannot perform those types of checks. I am not a technician.
Notary Alberto Vela, a childhood friend of Martínez, explained to questions from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office that the former Secretary of State for Security went to Mahón (Mallorca) to visit him due to their relationship. During that visit, Martínez told him that he wanted to formalize some messages exchanged with Fernández Díaz, which the latter has always denied. Vela detailed the steps taken to draw up these records — “a diligence of presence: what I see and perceive with my senses” — which, as he emphasized, is “at the request of a party,” and therefore includes “the details that interest the applicant.” Vela received screenshots with messages sent to him by Martínez, although he does not remember how, and subsequently verified that those specific messages were on Martínez’s mobile. But not the previous ones, the intermediate ones — if any — or the subsequent ones. He then accessed the mobile’s address book to check that he had the contact with whom he exchanged the messages on his list. And that was it. Is it possible for messages attributed to a contact to be recorded, even if they actually correspond to another person?, Anti-Corruption asked him. Vela did not hesitate.
—Of course it is.
Fernández Díaz’s defense did not want to let go of the prey that had been handed to them on a silver platter. Lawyer Jesús Mandri took the opportunity to completely discredit the messages that would supposedly show that the former minister was aware of the espionage operation against the Bárcenas family to steal information that would compromise the then leadership of the Popular Party. Vela confirmed that he “never” can accredit the origin of the messages. Not even “that those messages were exchanged,” but rather that the person interested in formalizing them “says they were exchanged.”
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This Tuesday, via videoconference, an agent who in May 2015 coordinated from the operational deputy directorate of the National Police to prevent investigations from overlapping between different units of the force also testified as a witness. The parapolice plot recorded a “information report” note in the GATI database that presented “several coincidences with Operation Kitchen,” according to the instructor. What they allegedly intended was to whitewash the surveillance that had been carried out two years earlier, to give them an appearance of legality. The witness stated that units have “the obligation” to share the investigation in GATI when inquiries “begin” “to detect any coincidence.” “Not even for reasons of secrecy or confidentiality could it be later,” the accusations questioned him. “It should not,” he replied.
For his part, the former head of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, who handled the Gürtel Case in 2013, stated that no one informed him that police surveillance was being carried out on Bárcenas’s family. Throughout the sessions, several agents who participated in the surveillance assured that they were tasked with following the former treasurer and his wife, Rosalía Iglesias, to see if they were hiding money, within the framework of Gürtel. The agent also confirmed that he never asked for support from other police units to advance the Gürtel investigation, such as the UCAO, the wiretapping unit, led by Commissioner Enrique García Castaño, alias El Gordo.
