The former Minister and former ‘number three’ of the PSOE José Luis Ábalos has sat this Monday for the third time in front of the Judge of the Supreme Court that investigates him and, again, has denied his involvement in the plot that allegedly looked out with rigged contracts, while he has denied that he will benefit from commissions or prebends, they inform Eldiario.es legal sources. Ábalos has affirmed before the magistrate that he had no participation in the processes of awarding of the Ministry.
This was the first statement of Ábalos after the 490 pages report of the UCO report in which they are linked to awards and prebendas. This Monday, José Luis Ábalos has stated that he is not recognized in the audios recorded in hidden by his exassor Koldo García in which both, together with Santos Cerdán, talk about those alleged illegal commissions. Ábalos has pointed in the direction that the audios could be manipulated.
At this point, the judge has insisted on what he was referring to that he was not recognized in the recordings. Ábalos has responded that in some does not identify his voice and in others he has affirmed that he has never participated in such conversations, legal sources say. Ábalos has reacted thus hearing the transcripts of the conversations included by the Civil Guard in his report and where the former minister appears.
Discourse to Cerdán
Against what he would have affirmed in a conversation with the SER chain last Thursday, José Luis Ábalos has disconnected Santos Cerdán completely from the awards of the Ministry of Transport because, as he said, Cerdán’s responsibilities were limited to the party. It has been prosecutor Luzón who has asked Ábalos for the figure of Cerdán.
José Luis Ábalos has appeared before the Court with a hesitative attitude, according to sources present in the interrogation. To his initial decision not to declare he has followed an exhibition of his personal situation, denouncing painted at home and that there are people who come to take pictures. Finally, he has agreed to answer the judge’s questions and after prosecutor Luzón. Ábalos did not want to respond to the popular accusation.
The bridge judge has asked him about his alleged participation in the rescue of Air Europa, to which Ábalos has denied any interference outside the convenience of helping the airline determined by the government. Regarding the government’s press release, in the hands of the Víctor de Aldama also investigated before the rescue was approved, Ábalos has said that he had nothing to do with his writing or his delivery to the entrepreneur.
The magistrate explains that one of the last reports of the UCO refers to the Ministry of Transportation made public a press release “feeding the idea that such aid were going to be obtained by Air Europa.” And that, in return, Ábalos Meco “could also obtain a certain economic benefit.” Specifically, the payment of a ten -day stay in a town in Marbella (Málaga) in the summer of 2020.
The hiring of Claudia M.
Ábalos has also been asked by Claudia M., another witness of the there are suspicions that he could be plugged in a public company. In one of its last crowded, the UCO affirms that this woman was hired by the public company Logirail SME, whose only shareholder is Renfe, a transport dependent, thanks to the “influence” of the then minister and Koldo García. Before the judge, Ábalos explained that he met the PSOE act and then she wrote several messages through the Instagram social network, but that they never seen each other again. He has denied having made steps to place it in a public company.
Regarding the hard drive that the Civil Guard intercepted when a woman who was with Ábalos intended to get him out of the home during his registration, the former minister has assured that it was only one copy of another device that the UCO took and that, therefore, all the information that was in him was already in the hands of the Civil Guard. Ábalos has said that both devices contain information for their defense and parliamentary material.
The popular action in the Abalos case has asked the judge to say provisional imprisonment for the former Minister of Transportation after his statement as investigated Monday in the Supreme Court. In the venue held, the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has refused to support the precautionary measure of prison for Ábalos but has added that it would not oppose a subsidiary of eludible prison with bail.
Judge Leopoldo Puente will take a decision this morning after Koldo García has refused to testify. For the ex -asor, the popular accusation has also requested prison and the fiscal has adopted identical position that with Ábalos, in the sense that the precautionary measures that weigh on them are maintained, the withdrawal of the passport and appearances in the court.
Source: www.eldiario.es
