The defendant: “My lawyer was appointed and hired by the PSPV and she does not defend my interests”
VALENCIA, 24 Jan. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Francisco Javier Cañizares, the ‘zombie’ defendant in the Imelsa case who has resigned his lawyer by alleging that she was appointed and hired by the PSPV and that she did not defend their interests, will be tried in a separate part of the proceedings with a lawyer from office designated by the Bar Association.
This has been agreed by the second section of the Provincial Court of Valencia, the court in charge of judging parts B and F of Imelsa, relating to the alleged ‘zombies’ in Imelsa and Ciegsa, who include, among other defendants, the former president of the Diputación and of the PP of the province of Valencia, Alfonso Rus.
Precisely this Monday, the day the hearing began, Cañizares already requested the change of lawyer and argued that he did not feel well defended: “They have put the lawyer on me. I want to tell the truth (…) He wants me to say that I have worked in Imelsa and it is a lie. I have not worked in Imelsa, I have worked in the maintenance socialist party,” he said. After that, the lawyer also resigned from defending her but the court rejected the change of lawyer so as not to suspend the trial.
This Tuesday, on the second day, the same accused has presented a letter to the court in which he insisted that he wanted to change his lawyer. Specifically, in the letter he stated that he had lost confidence in his current lawyer, who “was appointed and hired by the PSPV.”
In this sense, in the letter he explained that the lawyer “has a strategy more dedicated to exonerating other people than my own person. That is why I feel absolutely defenseless, because the defense strategy I want is not that of my lawyer. I do not feel that my interests be protected,” he repeated.
In addition, in the letter he highlighted that his last intention was to delay the process, since he wants all this to “end as soon as possible”, but he also cannot -he has alleged- continue with a lawyer who does not defend his interests: “I want this nightmare ends as soon as possible,” he said.
After his presentation, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for this case, Pablo Ponce, stated that he had already reached an agreement in accordance with his lawyer that might be of interest to him and has asked the court for a few minutes to speak with him, but the defendant has denied and has stated that he knew the terms but that he was not interested.
In this situation, Cañizares’ lawyer, who has insisted that she does not have to justify her work, has announced that she is going to request protection from the Bar Association and that she insisted on her resignation from representing her client.
Some colleagues of the lawyer have been making proposals to the court to resolve this situation and the Court, after studying them, has agreed to form a separate piece to judge Cañizares in a different procedure with another lawyer assigned by the ex officio shift.
“There is a manifest loss of trust and, in addition, there is reciprocity and communication difficulties between the lawyer and the client to be able to convey strategic issues to him. Keeping this man in court with his lawyer as defense can go beyond what fits in restriction of the law”, said the president of the court.
Thus, despite the fact that -the court has pointed out- the moment in which Cañizares makes this request is “late, with carelessness and negligence”, it has been agreed to form a separate piece and that the defendant can have another lawyer to give him more confidence. In this way, the trial for pieces B and F continues its course but remains with 25 defendants.
Along with Rus there are other defendants such as the former sub-delegate of the Government in Valencia and former deputy Rafael Rubio (PSPV) and the former regional secretary of Education Máximo Caturla and the former deputy of the PP Salvador Enguix.
This is the second trial of the Imelsa macro-cause, since the first one was tried in May, the one related to Thematica, with the ‘money junkie’ as the main defendant.
In the pieces that are being judged now, B and F, allegedly irregular hiring has been investigated in the public companies Imelsa and Ciegsa, Rus faces a sentence of 12 years in prison and Rubio –also investigated in the case known as Azud– to oros six, as can be seen from the provisional qualification of the public prosecutor’s office.
The Prosecutor’s Office attributes to Rus the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, a continuous crime of embezzlement of public funds, administrative prevarication and falsification of an official document committed by a public official. Likewise, Rubio is accused of a continued crime of embezzlement of public funds, forgery in an official document and a continued crime of administrative prevarication.
For the former regional secretary of Education Máximo Caturla and the former chief of staff of Rus, Emilio Llopis, he claims the same penalty as for the former president of the Provincial Council for identical crimes, in addition to a fine and disqualification.
