10 characters in the Leire Díez case: who's who?

MadridThe Leire Díez case has exploded into Spanish politics and revealed the dirty war raging in the judicial system: negotiations, espionage, leaks... The former PSOE member has decided to break his silence. This Wednesday, ten days after The Confidential He published the audio recording in which he offered judicial benefits to a businessman accused in a hydrocarbon case in exchange for digging up dirt on high-ranking officials of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. He did so with an appearance without questions and, subsequently, in various media interviews. Who's who in this whole serial?

The group against the UCO

Leire Díez

Until now, a member of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), he had held several positions in public companies such as Enusa and Correos in recent years. He previously worked on the social media team for Pedro Sánchez's candidacy in the 2014 primaries. For several years, he has been collaborating with "victims" of irregular police practices, working with businessman Javier Pérez Dolset and journalist Patrícia López, among others. He claims to want to publish a book about his investigations.

Javier Pérez Dolset

This is a businessman under investigation by the National Court for the bankruptcy of his company Zed, but he claims that the case arose from an orchestrated maneuver between a member of the National Police's UDEF (Uninstitutional Electoral Unit) and the Planeta group, with whom he had a dispute. In an interview on the program Everything is a lie This Tuesday, she admitted that she had met with Santos Cerdán at Ferraz—accompanied by Díez—to hand him documentation of irregular practices by Mariano Rajoy's government against the PSOE. She didn't specify the date, but said the contacts had begun in early 2024.

Jacobo Teijelo

Pérez Dolset's lawyer also participated in the March meeting of this year leaked in The Confidential. In fact, the meeting with businessman Alejandro Hamlyn—who participated via videoconference from Dubai—was held in his office. He is also the lawyer for Juan Yepes, a Civil Guard officer accused of revealing information about companies linked to the hydrocarbon sector.

She is a journalist who from the newspaper Public He revealed a wealth of information about the irregularities of former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. He now collaborates with Díez, Pérez Dolset, and Teijelo to denounce police and judicial practices of dubious legality.

The opposing faction

Victor de Aldama

The broker in the Koldo case is also charged with the hydrocarbon VAT fraud scheme, for which he served time in prison. He was released in exchange for promises of cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office. Since then, he has cast suspicion on individuals in the Spanish government and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), although without conclusive evidence. This Wednesday, He has burst into Leire Díez's statement to reprimand her..

Alejandro Hamlyn

A businessman also under investigation in a case involving fraud in the hydrocarbon sector, he participates in the meeting with Díez, Dolset, and Teijelo from Dubai. Supposedly, the meeting is with Teijelo to explore whether he will become his new lawyer. Both have consistent accounts: there are irregular police and judicial practices that lead to cases against innocent people. In the conversation, he claims to have extensive information about the lieutenant colonel of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard who is investigating him. In an interview with El Correo, however, He said it was all a lie.

José Antonio Balas

Head of the Economic Crimes Department at the University of Cordoba, she appears as a target of Leire Díez in the conversation in Teijelo's office. "I don't want this man to become the executioner of us all. That's what needs to be dismantled," she said. In the interview with Everything is a lie This Wednesday, Díez admitted that "for now, Balas is as clean as a whistle," but stated that he asked Hamlyn why there were suspicions about the lieutenant colonel's preferential treatment of certain companies linked to the hydrocarbon sector.

Rubén Villalba

This Civil Guard officer is also under investigation in the Koldo case, and Leire Díez met twice, according to his own admission. Supposedly, the meeting was about Rubén Villalba and, like Hamlyn, about changing lawyers. As with the meeting with the Dubai-based businessman, both meetings have been leaked to right-wing media outlets.

José Antonio Choclán

This is Aldama and Villalba's lawyer. Pérez Dolset was clear this afternoon on the program. Everything is a lie when he stated: "This is a law firm [Choclán's] spying on another firm [Teijelo's] with opposing interests. And on each side there is a civil guard who are at odds."

Juan Vicente Bonilla

Juan Vicente Bonilla, former head of human resources at the University of Coahuila and, since October 2023, a senior security official at the Madrid Health Institute, during the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, appears at the heart of some legal proceedings. In recent days, information has been leaked. WhatsApp in 2021 with a confidant and businessman accused in the hydrocarbons plot, José Luis Caramés, in which he warns him that he has "sensitive" information about Koldo García. Therefore, an irregular origin is suspected in the case against Koldo and Ábalos.