The fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced former PP minister Eduardo Zaplana to 10 years and five months in prison as the author of the crimes of money laundering, bribery, falsification of commercial documents, and also imposes special disqualification for employment. or public office for 17 years and 10 months (for the crimes of administrative malfeasance and bribery). In addition, it imposes a fine of 25 million euros. The ruling acquits Zaplana and the rest of the defendants of the alleged crime of a criminal group.
It also concludes that Zaplana’s conduct, in accordance with his position as president of the Generalitat Valenciana, was “especially reprehensible.” The Provincial Court of Valencia considers it proven that Eduardo Zaplana and his then chief of staff received illicit commissions after intervening in the process of awarding the privatization of the ITV. And it considers, in its section of proven facts, that the former PP politician was the “actual owner or ultimate beneficiary” of the funds in Luxembourg and Andorra in the name of his front man.
Zaplana and the rest of the accused have been acquitted of the alleged crime of a criminal group, finding that it is more of an “alleged codelinquency”, without there being an “associative agreement with a criminal purpose and a distribution of roles”.
The sentence of the ‘Erial case’ also absolves the former Valencian president José Luis Olivas, who was facing a request for a six-year sentence for an alleged crime of bribery. The ruling indicates that it has not been proven that the collection of 580,000 euros from Sedesa (the business group of the Cotino family) “had its cause” in its participation in the process of awarding the Wind Farms.
Zaplana’s secretary, Mitsouko Henríquez, has also been acquitted. The ruling states that it has not been proven that she was aware of the “illicit origin of the cash she delivered” to Zaplana.
The ruling imposes minimum sentences on the group of defendants who reached an agreement in accordance with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in exchange for recognizing the facts: Joaquín Miguel Barceló ‘Pachano’, confessed front man of Zaplana, sentenced to one year and three months in prison for money laundering of capital and a fine of five million euros; the former chief of staff Juan Francisco García (two years and nine months for the crimes of bribery, falsehood and money laundering and disqualification for a crime of administrative prevarication for four years and five months), and the businessmen Vicente Cotino (three years and five months of prison for the crimes of bribery, forgery and money laundering, in addition to a fine of four million euros) and José Cotino (two years in prison for the crime of bribery and a fine of 320,000 euros).
For Francisco Grau Jornet, the accountant of the plot, the sentence imposes five years in prison for money laundering, a fine of 20 million euros and disqualification from practicing his profession for three years. The ruling concludes that he was the “financier” who managed Zaplana’s “hidden assets” abroad.
Businessman Francisco Pérez López has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for a crime of falsehood. On the contrary, the ruling acquits the lawyer Saturnino Suanzes and the businessmen Robert-Edgar Batauche Pérez and Carlos Gutiérrez Nomdedeu.
Zaplana will appeal the ruling
The former popular minister, in a statement, has announced that he will appeal the sentence. Zaplana argues that there is “no objective evidence” of his participation in the events. The former politician and former director of Telefónica has advanced, after learning of the ruling, that he feels “disappointed” for having been convicted “for evidence based on opaque pacts and agreements and without any objective evidence” about his participation in the events.
Despite everything, the former president of the Generalitat has stated that he continues to “trust” in justice and has stated that he is certain that “sooner or later” the “unfounded” nature of the accusations will be recognized and, consequently, he will resort to the “necessary” instances.
In the same statement, Zaplana has also shown his “joy” for the acquittal in this procedure “of all the people whose only crime was having been my friends or collaborators and who have had to suffer an equally unjust accusation and endure for many years the threat of a criminal conviction without any basis,” he added.
Source: www.eldiario.es
