The Attorney General of the State, Teresa Peramato, will propose to the Government the appointment of María Isabel Martín as the new Chief Prosecutor of Madrid, which means the replacement of Almudena Lastra, the prosecutor who testified against Álvaro García Ortiz in the trial in which he was convicted of revealing confidential data.
After almost six hours answering questions in the trial for the ‘Operation Kitchen’ held at the National Court, National Police Chief Inspector Manuel Morocho was eager to speak more. During the two sessions that his testimony lasted, the officer who led investigations such as Gürtel or the Bárcenas Papers recounted how he corroborated the existence of “a police operation without judicial authorization” targeting the former treasurer of the Popular Party Luis Bárcenas, how he suffered pressure not to include the name of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in one of his reports, how the Ministry of the Interior at the time deployed “a strategy to dismantle” his police group, and how he found “indications” that his office and vehicle were monitored to conduct surveillance on him. “I don’t know if I can say something,” he asked the court president, Teresa Palacios, as she was dismissing him. At that moment, a nearly unanimous “no” was heard from the defendants’ bench, almost entirely. “The PP’s black beast,” as he recalled they called him yesterday, left without revealing that “thing” he still had to say. Although what he did say, exposing Kitchen, was not few.
When Samson had his hair cut, he lost his superhuman strength. Koldo García had his 27 mobile phones taken away by the police and has lost his memory. “I don’t remember,” has been the main response from the former advisor to José Luis Ábalos during the interrogation conducted by the prosecutor this morning. García, former minister Ábalos, and the commissioner Víctor de Aldama are being tried before the Supreme Court for the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery, insider trading, and embezzlement.
Firm, right! Right, right! March, right! One would think that the initiative of the Generalitat Government to strengthen the presence of the Mossos d’Esquadra in educational centers was equivalent to the promulgation of martial law. The so-called educational community, the part
For almost 40 years Andalusia was considered a socialist stronghold. It seemed like an enormous impregnable fortress. The socialists managed to blend in with the landscape in a remarkable way by identifying their brand with the construction of autonomy and the strengthening of an Andalusian identity in the early 80s. The so-called “captive vote” did the rest: for a long time the PSOE was skillful in attributing to itself the granting of agricultural aid and the implementation of public services. All this gave it an undeniable political stability. Now it is one of the few autonomous communities where the PP governs with an absolute majority, at a time when that achievement is a rarity. Has Andalusia turned to the right?
It was many hours of testimony, seven and a half. The commissioner Víctor de Aldama was interrogated before the Supreme Court throughout the entire day yesterday. He admitted some of his illicit businesses. He claimed to have paid commissions and gifts to the former minister José Luis Ábalos and his advisor Koldo García. And he also tried to implicate the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, with the shady dealings of the network.
Víctor de Aldama had to prove before the Supreme Court that he is telling the truth; it is his lifeline to have his collaboration with justice and repentance recognized and to achieve a considerable reduction of the sentence. To do this, he had to betray former minister José Luis Ábalos and his loyal squire Koldo García. And he did. Eight hours of testimony in which he recounted how he was paying them a kind of salary of 10,000 euros per month, in addition to other gifts including rents, vacations, apartments, motorcycles, cars, and even medical treatments, totaling between three and a half and four million. These amounts were qualified, but the estimate of what the former minister and his advisor received would be that, according to the commission agent’s version. The money did not all come out of his pocket. Aldama put in part, and other companies seeking contracts – with which he acted as a link – paid the rest. Part went to the minister and the advisor and another part to the PSOE, always according to his version.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo has visited Andalusia again this Wednesday to support Juanma Moreno in his quest to renew the absolute majority. On this occasion, the leader of the PP has been in Roquetas de Mar (Almería) and wanted to claim the line and the “change” that Moreno has given to Andalusia, which must be “extended” to Spain, and has attacked the PSOE candidate María Jesús Montero for corruption as he recalled that she has been in the government during the ERE case and the Koldo case.
The wife of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, is expected to file a complaint against the well-known far-right troublemaker Vito Quiles for an alleged “assault” suffered inside a café, according to sources from La Moncloa.
Rescue operation. After being exonerated on Monday due to age and health reasons, the children close ranks with Jordi Pujol i Soley. Five of them emphasized this morning in the trial ongoing at the National Court against the family that they “never” had an account in Andorra nor had any participation or benefited in any way from the ‘legacy’ of their grandfather, Florenci Pujol i Brugat.