The Prosecutor’s Office assures that the young man was “the boss” of the police officers accused of giving him “confidential” information
MADRID, 13 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The trial in which Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, known as ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’, is accused of having accessed in 2014 information of a “confidential” nature that was in police databases has been seen for sentencing.
After more than five hours of session, the young man has made use of his right to the last word. “It is the last trial I have. If I don’t say it now, I will never say it,” he pointed out to emphasize that inspector Rubén Eladio López – in charge of the investigation – has denounced him “repeatedly”. “There was a manifest enmity,” he said.
This Monday the fifth and last session of the trial held in the Madrid Court against Gómez Iglesias, two municipal police officers, a civil guard and the former Security Coordinator of the Madrid City Council took place. The prosecutor has confirmed his request for 9 years and 9 months in prison for ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’ and 8 years and 6 months for the two municipal agents for crimes of integration into a criminal group, disclosure of secrets and bribery, among others.
The Public Ministry accuses Gómez Iglesias of providing several investigated vehicle license plates, telephone lines or identification numbers so that they –taking advantage of their status as agents– access information and give it to them in exchange for promises and/or money .
The prosecutor has defended his accusation and has assured that ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’ was the “boss” of the two municipal police officers with whom he formed a criminal group that accessed databases. “The one who started, who was the head of all of them, was undoubtedly Mr. Gómez Iglesias,” he said, later emphasizing that the young man “would have been better off dedicating himself to studying his career and not saying that it was…”.
Both the Public Ministry and the defenses have ruled on the investigation that gave rise to the case. The Prosecutor’s Office has defended the legality of the proceedings and has insisted that “there is an order that enabled the entry and registration to clarify the crimes” that were attributed to the young man. Thus, it has shown its opposition to the argument that said order was void.
For its part, the defense of Gómez Iglesias has questioned – due to lack of motivation – the legality of said actions: the entry and search of the young man’s home, the extraction of information from the seized devices and the chain of custody.
The lawyer Juan Carlos Navarro has insisted that with the extraction of the data from Gómez Iglesias’ iPhone 5 “three fundamental rights are affected”, including the right to the digital environment. For this reason, he has assured that the information collected from said mobile must be eliminated as evidence, in reference to the WhatsApp group on which the Prosecutor’s Office is based to point out “El Pequeño Nicolás” and the two municipal police officers as members of a criminal group. .
It has also had an impact on the fact that the young man, “without being a terrorist”, has been investigated by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and by the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police, something that –in his opinion– shows that this case responds to “a prospective investigation”. Thus, he added that: “None of the injured or victims have denounced.”
On the other hand, the prosecutor has dedicated part of his intervention to reading the WhatsApp messages that he attributes to ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’ and the municipal agents since “they did not want to answer -during the trial- about everything that was the subject of of accusation”.
It should be remembered that in the interrogations held last week, the defendants chose not to answer the questions regarding these messages because their lawyers challenged the content of these communications, considering that the chain of custody of the mobile phone from which they were extracted was violated.
“Call me, please. I need registration,” the prosecutor read among other messages while recalling that the conversations took place from August 2014 to October of that year, when the authorities arrested ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’.
This Monday, the defenses of the rest of the defendants have also presented their final reports, who have demanded an acquittal because they consider that the crimes with which they are accused have not been proven.
The lawyer representing the investigated civil guard, Francisco Javier Sánchez López, has insisted on the innocence of his client and recalled that he is a public official “with a long career” who has made “a mistake” because he understood that “Little Nicolás ‘ was a partner. He faces a request for 2 years and 8 months in prison by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The defense of the municipal police officer Jorge González Hormigos -for whom the prosecutor is requesting 8 and a half years in prison- has asked that his client be acquitted because, among other issues, “there is no complaint for alleged damage.” In addition, he has questioned the legality of the investigation, assuring that it is “unnecessary and prospective” and that it responds to a “political” cause.
In line, the lawyer has assured that there is no record that the agent provided information regarding any registration and has stressed that the fact that he had a WhatsApp group “where nonsense is talked about” cannot in itself prove the existence of a group criminal. She has insisted that the private prosecution and the popular prosecution should be ordered to pay the costs; and in which the mitigation of highly qualified undue delays must be applied.
The lawyer of the municipal agent Felipe Gallego – who also faces a request for 8 and a half years in jail – has insisted that his client acted because he was “convinced” that ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’ worked for the City Council. “He was not the only one who believed that it was what it seemed,” he said, later specifying that “in no way did he know or suspect that Francisco Nicolás was carrying out the illegal acts that he is accused of.” In addition, he has stressed that there is no evidence of agreement nor has it been proven that he charged an amount.
Finally, the defense of the former Security Coordinator of the Madrid City Council, Emilio García-Grande, has ensured that his client has not committed a crime of revealing a secret. In this regard, he has recalled that he is credited with having provided information on a vehicle to Gómez Iglesias, but has insisted that he at no time provided data. “Saying ‘he is not one of us’ is not revealing any type of information”, he stressed, before insisting on the nullity of the case.
On the sidelines, the Unified Municipal Police Association has stressed that the accused agents “have not denied the facts”, but have “justified” them. In his opinion, it has been proven that they provided information collected at police bases to ‘El Pequeño Nicolás’.
On whether or not he received money in exchange for said data, the lawyer has stressed that for a public official the crime of bribery is consumed “at least with the mere promise” of said reward and with the fact of consulting and giving the information. In his intervention, he has also indicated that he lowers Gómez Iglesias’ qualification from author to instigator of a criminal group.
For its part, the Madrid City Council has defended the legality of the investigation and has insisted that the defendants had a plan to consult license plates. “They used official media,” he added.
After the exposure of all parties, the court has declared the trial seen for sentencing. The resolution will be announced in the coming weeks. It would be the fifth sentence for ‘Little Nicolás’. So far, three have been convictions and one acquittal.