The judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, has launched the investigation into the dirty war that the National Police allegedly unleashed against Podemos during the Government of Mariano Rajoy. For the moment, the magistrate has called Francisco Martínez, then Secretary of State for the Interior, and several senior police officers of the time to testify in October and November as defendants: Deputy Operational Director Eugenio Pino, Enrique García Castaño and José Ángel Fuentes Gago in addition to Andrés Gómez Gordo and Germán Rodríguez Castiñeira.
The magistrate also agrees to call several witnesses proposed by Podemos to testify after the first battery of testimonies contained in the complaint was rejected. Ignacio Cosidó will not be charged but he has been called to testify as a witness along with several former commissioners allegedly involved, a Venezuelan citizen and Pablo Iglesias’ former accountant.
It was last February when Judge Pedraz became the first magistrate to agree to analyze by criminal means whether the police leadership of the PP governments with Mariano Rajoy illegally maneuvered to harm Podemos and its leaders in the midst of the rise of the game. Already in his order of admission to proceedings, the judge explained that for the moment he would not investigate the then minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, nor the director of the Police, Ignacio Cosidó, but several of his subordinates and senior police officers.
Summons are scheduled for the end of October. On the 29th, Francisco Martínez, prosecuted in the Kitchen case, and Commissioner Enrique García Castaño will appear. A day later Eugenio Pino, Deputy Operational Director of the force, and José Ángel Fuentes Gago, another commissioner, will do so. On November 6, Andrés Gómez Gordo, a police officer recently convicted by the City of Justice of the Community of Madrid, and Germán Rodríguez Castiñeira will appear.
The complaint from Ione Belarra’s party pointed out that those investigated, following orders from Francisco Martínez and ultimately Jorge Fernández Díaz, “were in charge of carrying out prospective investigations unrelated to any police interest, not under judicial control or the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the people who made up the Podemos political organization.”
From the Police to the covers
The main objective, according to the complaint filed by Pedraz, was to subsequently leak it to the media under the seal of reliability of the “police sources” and finally to discredit the party that Pablo Iglesias then led in the eyes of public opinion, as well as to attack the party. this way against the indemnity of their deputies and other public officials.
The consequences of this illegal police activity against the party, the complaint explained, can be found on the front pages in eight different actions: from the investigation of party leader Pablo Iglesias in the PISA report (on the false irregular financing of Podemos) to the leak of a “false” document for an account in his name at Euro Pacific Bank Limited or the manipulation of documents or internal police records to give the appearance of legality to the actions of the defendants.
Since its emergence into Spanish politics in the 2014 European elections, neither Podemos nor any of its leaders have been convicted of irregularly financing the party. A Madrid court kept proceedings open for three years in what was known as the ‘Neurona case’, which was finally archived due to lack of evidence.
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