The National Court refuses to charge Cospedal again for spying on Bárcenas
The Criminal Chamber of the National High Court has rejected all the appeals against the closing of the investigation of the Kitchen case decreed by Judge Manuel García Castellón on July 29, including that of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office that asked to recharge María Dolores de Cospedal and her husband, Ignacio López del Hierro, and take a statement from the former director of the Police, Ignacio Cosidó. At the same time, the Chamber confirms the indications to judge the former Minister of the Interior, among them the former minister Jorge Fernández Díaz, for the police operation launched with the aim of stealing material related to the investigation of the PP, Luis Bárcenas. Gurtel case.
In its appeal, the Prosecutor's Office argued that the judicial investigation into this separate piece of 'Tándem' had been hastily closed because there were pending issues, including some measures requested to fully clarify the facts and that would affect some of those investigated. for which the case was filed. Specifically, Anticorruption saw the dismissal of Cospedal, of her husband, Ignacio López del Hierro, as extemporaneous; and asked to cite as investigated the former director of the Police Ignacio Cosidó.
In relation to the request to revoke the file of the case for Cospedal and her husband, the order examines all the conversations, notes and messages that, according to the prosecutor, would prove their involvement in the events and concludes that there are not sufficient indications of their participation in the events. investigated, since they are weakened by the testimonies of those under investigation Villarejo, Sergio Ríos and Andrés Manuel Gómez Gordo, the latter former advisor to Cospedal in the Presidency of Castilla-La Mancha.
The Chamber appreciates that the recognition of Cospedal and López del Hierro of their meetings with Villarejo for "issues outside the facts investigated." For this reason, the court shares the reasoning of the investigating judge when it closed the case for them based on the doctrine of the Supreme Court according to which the writ of transformation to an abbreviated procedure is a filter in the hands of the investigating judge to purge the procedural object and expel by means of the dismissal of those investigated facts not supported by well-founded indications of commission and thus continue the process with respect to those that have a solid evidence base, avoiding the opening of unnecessary trials.
In the same way, the Chamber considers that, in relation to the request for the declaration of former Police Director Ignacio Cosidó as being investigated, there is insufficient evidence from those investigated to support that interrogation.
Regarding Fernández Díaz, the Chamber concludes that "the criminal appearance of the alleged acts prevents agreeing on the dismissal" of the case against him, for which the former Minister of the Interior is on his way to the bench. In addition, the prosecution is confirmed for the former Deputy Director of Operations Eugenio Pino, the police officers José Luis Olivera, Marcelino Martín Blas, José Ángel Fuentes Gago, Bonifacio Díez Sevillano, Enrique García Castaño, Andrés Manuel Gómez Gordo, as well as for the commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and the driver from Bárcenas Sergio Ríos. The facts, in the opinion of the instructor, could constitute the crimes of discovery and disclosure of secrets, prevarication, omission of the duty to prosecute crimes, bribery, influence peddling and embezzlement.
The possible connection with Rajoy will not be investigated
In relation to the request to carry out the investigations to identify all the data related to five mobile phone numbers provided by Villarejo, which according to him communicated with the then Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the magistrates also reject the practice of this diligence, considering it unnecessary because the communications that the Commissioner claimed to maintain with that number lack any circumstantial support.
Regarding the rest of the telephones, one of them owned by the PP, the Court indicates that there is no indication that Villarejo communicated with said number. It adds that someone who works with the person under investigation was able to obtain said numbers relatively easily and that it can be done in many non-illegal ways "and in no way necessarily implies that whoever has that information effectively communicates with that number."
