The National Court has acquitted Police Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and businessman Javier López Madrid of the assignment that the latter gave to the former to investigate the dermatologist Elisa Pinto. The Fourth Section ruling considers the relationship between the businessman and the police officer to be proven, but not so that there was a payment from the former to the latter when Villarejo was an active commissioner, assigned to the heart of State security.
In the sentence, the magistrates acquit Villarejo and also his partner Rafael Redondo of passive bribery and López Madrid of active bribery of which Dr. Pinto accused them as a popular accusation, which requested sentences of 6 years in prison for the commissioner and the businessman and 4 for Redondo. In this procedure, which has been judged as piece 24 of the Tandem macro case, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did not accuse the understand that the facts did not constitute a crime.
The Court considers that it has not been proven that Villarejo or the Cenyt Group, of which it is the beneficial owner, requested or received any payment from Javier López Madrid on account of these events. There is also no evidence, the resolution adds, that the accused López Madrid knew, on the date of the events, that Villarejo was an active public official.
“Although the aforementioned contacts have been proven, the presence of a gift, favor or remuneration of any kind, offer or promise received or requested by the public official – passive bribery – or offered or given by the individual – active bribery – does not seem to be proven,” the ruling states.
The court recalls in its ruling that in this procedure the facts related to the crimes of threats, coercion and aggravated injuries, which are the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court 10 of Madrid, have not been judged. The trial for the coercion, threats and injury to the doctor will be held in a few months. CV
After examining the evidence, the Chamber considers the contacts between the accused to be proven, but not the presence of a gift, favor or remuneration of any kind, offer or promise received or requested by the commissioner (passive bribery) or offered or given by the businessman (active bribery). Added to this, the ruling indicates, is that the accused, in their respective statements, denied any delivery or remuneration at trial. For all these reasons, the Court concludes that the presumption of innocence has not been rebutted and that acquittal is appropriate.
The main police investigator in the Villarejo case declared at trial that the commissioner referred to Javier López Madrid as a “client” in documents seized from the police officer during his arrest in November 2017. The chief inspector of Internal Affairs established some coincidences with other projects carried out by Villarejo for private clients while he was a public official and also differences, such as the fact that no reflection of payments by López Madrid or his companies to Villarejo’s detective agency was found.
“If there are doubts and these are reasonable, that is, logical, common sense, not absurd or derived from maximalist or impossible approaches, they must be acquitted. It is necessary, therefore, that clear, precise, conclusive evidence of the reality of what happened be present in the case. The existence of a reasonable and reasoned doubt in this resolution prevents us from making a condemnatory statement,” the ruling concludes.
Source: www.eldiario.es
