The Prosecutor’s Office asks for four years in prison for the retired commissioner for alleged crimes of discovery and revelation of secrets
MADRID, 6 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Provincial Court of Madrid will hold this Tuesday, at 10:00 a.m., the first session of the trial against retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo in which he is accused of ordering the recording and broadcasting of a meeting between agents of the National Police and the National Center for Intelligence (CNI) on the investigation related to Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, known as ‘Little Nicolás’.
The trial will take place while the retired commissioner waits for the National Court to issue the sentence regarding the three pieces of the ‘Tandem case’ that were judged between October 2021 and September 2022 and for which he faces an 83-year-old petition in jail for the alleged crimes committed in carrying out the ‘Iron’, ‘Land’ and ‘Pintor’ projects.
The Seventh Section of the Madrid Provincial Court will judge Villarejo; his wife, Gemma Alcalá; and the journalist Carlos Mier for an alleged crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets.
The Prosecutor’s Office asks for a sentence of four years in prison for the commissioner. For Alcalá and for Mier, he requests three years in prison, considering that they acted as necessary cooperators. The State Attorney requested the same sentences for the same crimes.
The accusation brought by Podemos increased his request for revealing secrets for Alcalá and Mier to four years in prison and the sentence he urges for Villarejo to five years. In addition, he accused the three of a crime of procedural fraud for which he claims eight months in prison for each one.
For its part, the accusation brought by the Platform for Honesty requested six years in prison for Villarejo and five for Mier and Alcalá for revealing secrets and for belonging to or joining a criminal group. He also added a crime of procedural fraud for which he requested eight months in prison for each, and another of insults and slander to public officials in which he claimed six more months in prison.
The events date back to a meeting held on October 20, 2014 between the commissioner then head of the Internal Affairs Unit Marcelino Martín Blas and some agents from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) to whom he was going to inform about the ongoing investigation. about Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, known as ‘Little Nicolás’, whom they had under suspicion for allegedly posing as a liaison between the Vice Presidency of the Government and the Royal House, and as an Intelligence agent.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Villarejo was aware of the call for that meeting “and planned to record the conversation” with the purpose of later disseminating it in ‘Sensitive Information’ and other media “and thus succeed in hindering, hindering or blocking the ongoing investigation” about Gomez Iglesias.
The content of the meeting was recorded and later broadcast on said portal, of which Alcalá was the owner, and in which Mier worked. The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that it was Villarejo’s wife who ordered the journalist to record that meeting.
As explained by the Public Ministry, the journalist called the head of Internal Affairs from his cell phone and “activated some type of computer application or software that allowed the ambient sound to be captured without being noticed by Martín Blas.”
The call was made at 5:53:04 p.m. on October 20, 2014 and lasted 13 minutes and 9 seconds. “Part of the conversation that the CNP officials and the CNI agents were having was transmitted through that call over the telephone channel. The final record was made by air, using the defendant Carlos Mier, a recording device that he brought close to his telephone In this way the conversation was recorded, “said the Prosecutor’s Office.
The recording, once edited, had a duration of almost seven minutes but with a “very low quality” sound, so it could only be partially transcribed, according to the Public Ministry.
After three years of investigation, Villarejo, Alcalá and Mier were prosecuted, but not Gómez Iglesias, who was left out of this separate piece due to lack of evidence against him. The head of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Madrid, Pilar Martínez Gamo, sent the commissioner to the bench for ordering the journalist “carry out the recording” to “know its content and disclose it for spurious purposes” in the medium owned by his wife.
The Provincial Court of Madrid expects accusations and defenses to raise their previous questions this Tuesday. According to what has been set, it will be on November 22 when the interrogation of those investigated will take place. The next day, the 23rd, will be the testimony of the former head of the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police Marcelino Martín Blas, the former Deputy Director of Operations (DAO) of the Corps Eugenio Pino and other agents.
According to the calendar, the court will hear ‘Little Nicholas’ on November 25. Four days later, the businessman Adrián de la Joya and the former head of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Police José Luis Olivera will appear. The trial sessions will last until December 2.
