Ábalos and Koldo return to the Supreme Court two and a half months after entering prison

Madrid77 days after the Supreme Court will send them to jailJosé Luis Ábalos and Koldo García have temporarily left Soto del Real prison for the preliminary hearing in their trial for the purchase of face masks, which is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks. This unprecedented hearing was established under the law on efficiency in the justice system, which came into effect ten months ago. The former number three of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and his former advisor at the Ministry of Transport arrived at Plaza Villa de París at 10:30 a.m., half an hour before the scheduled time. The third defendant, Víctor de Aldama, is also present, although he is free and has not made any statements. For the first time, the three have appeared together in the dock and come face to face with the seven judges who will preside over their case: Andrés Martínez Arrieta, Manuel Marchena, Andrés Palomo, Susana Polo, Eduardo de Porres, Julián Sánchez Melgar, and Javier Hernández. Two Spanish police officers separate Aldama from Ábalos, who is next to Koldo, who is trying to cover his face with his jacket.

One of the first requests made by Leticia de la Hoz, Koldo García's lawyer, was to try to discredit Víctor de Aldama's account: she asked that the two defendants undergo a comparison to verify their versions and that they submit to a polygraph test. Furthermore, she recused five of the seven judges on the panel. Four of them had initially accepted the case because they have a "formed opinion," and Julián Sánchez Melgar, who was the Attorney General during the last six months of Mariano Rajoy's presidency and, therefore, she believes has a "clear affinity" with the People's Party (PP), which is a private prosecutor in the case. But the court rejected the request because it was filed after the deadline.

The last desperate move to try to halt the hearing and the future trial was made this morning: she filed a motion requesting that the Supreme Court raise five preliminary issues and suspend the proceedings until they are resolved. His main complaint is that the case is being tried in the Supreme Court and not in the National Court after Ábalos resigned his seat in Parliament. According to information obtained by ARA, his defense team wants the Court of Justice of the European Union to be asked whether this violates the right to a judge predetermined by law, the right to effective judicial protection, and the right to a fair trial.

What penalties do they face?

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office He is asking for 24 years in prison. For Ábalos, 19 and a half years for Koldo, and seven years for Aldama. Meanwhile, the private prosecutions, led by the PP, maintain their request for Aldama and thesentence increased to 30 years in prison for the former minister and his former advisor. The public prosecutor accuses Ábalos and Koldo of alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, bribery, insider trading, influence peddling, and embezzlement. The businessman and alleged fixer in the case, Koldo, receives the mitigating circumstance of confession and is only charged with the first three crimes. Aldama cites his "proactive" cooperation with the justice system, which "has allowed the investigation to be advanced and expanded," to justify his request for reduced sentences.

Ábalos and Koldo want to be tried by the National Court

In recent days, the defense teams for Koldo and Ábalos have requested that the trial be held in the National Court, after Ábalos resigned his seat in Congress and, therefore, lost his parliamentary immunity. However, in December 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that once someone has been sent to trial—as happened in December—waiving parliamentary immunity has no consequences. Koldo's lawyer's brief, which ARA obtained, argued that the Supreme Court's non-jurisdictional plenary agreement twelve years ago serves to "unify internal criteria, provide legal certainty, and prevent arbitrariness," but "does not prevent" the court from conducting a "competence review," "as required." Ábalos's defense, led by Marino Turiel, endorsed the brief. Benet Salellas and Jacobo Teijelo, Santos Cerdán's lawyers, did not attend the hearing. They requested it the day before the hearing, but the Supreme Court has closed the door.