The judge ignores the PP and Ábalos avoids jail.

MadridJosé Luis Ábalos will remain free to serve as a member of Congress despite the ongoing investigation by the Supreme Court. This is what the investigating judge in the alleged corruption case, Leopoldo Puente, has agreed upon following the former Minister of Transport's fourth summons to the high court, which faced the threat of pretrial detention—the PP and seven other popular accusations have requested this in a brief hearing. In the nine-page ruling, in which Puente rejects toughening the precautionary measures applied to Ábalos, the judge states that despite the latest report from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard—the reason for recalling him again—it provides "very consistent" evidence against the former minister and increases the risk of imprisonment. Thus, the judge is inclined to heed the advice of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which had advocated not making any changes and maintaining the passport revocation and the requirement to appear in court every two weeks, which have been in place for Ábalos since February.

The former Minister of Transport spent more than five hours in the Supreme Court—most of it awaiting Puente's decision—and as soon as he was released, he addressed Congress. The judge commented on this, encouraging a "reflection" on the appropriateness of the law allowing Ábalos to retain his seat. "This investigating judge is not unaware of the natural stupor that arises when a person, faced with such strong evidence of the possible commission of very serious crimes, [...] can continue [...] simultaneously exercising the high functions corresponding to a member of Congress," says Puente, who emphasizes that he merely applies the rules that permit this situation. If the judge had sent him to prison, Ábalos would have been suspended as a deputy without the possibility of voting or collecting a salary. The judge argues that he could not order the provisional detention "with the (improper) purpose of satisfying the requirements arising from the current wording of the Congressional regulations that allow the suspension to take place."

Why doesn't he agree? According to the ruling, the risk of flight is "increasing" as the investigation progresses, but it is not yet "intensified enough." The Anti-Corruption Office had argued that his status as a parliamentarian and his deep roots in the state reduce the possibility of him trying to flee Spain. "To avert the present risk," Puente agrees, continuing with the current situation is "sufficient," although it opens the door to applying "more onerous" precautionary measures in the future. Koldo García, Ábalos's former advisor, is scheduled to appear before the Supreme Court this Thursday. Predictably, Puente and the Anti-Corruption Office will maintain the same line they followed with the former minister, which leaves former PSOE number three Santos Cerdán as the only suspect in prison.

Has not testified.

Unlike on previous occasions, Ábalos has refused to testify. Legal sources present at the hearing explained that the former Minister of Transport justified this by saying he felt "helpless" due to the fact that he had to attend with the lawyer he had resigned from two days earlier and had to prepare alone for the appointment. The former minister arrived alone at the Supreme Court at 9:15 a.m., three-quarters of an hour before the summons. He was not accompanied by lawyer José Anibal Álvarez, whom he was forced to retain as his counsel despite having resigned from his services. Puente rejected the last-minute change on Tuesday—Ábalos informed the Supreme Court of his resignation from his lawyer less than two days before the statement and requested a court-appointed lawyer less than 24 hours before the hearing—because He considered it a "legal fraud".

According to the judge, the decision to go without a lawyer and urgently request a public defender was an attempt to force the suspension of the statement due to the risk of imprisonment. At the beginning of the appearance, Ábalos confronted the judge and replied that what would have been a "fraud" was that he had renounced his position as a deputy, as his lawyer had advised him to do so, so that he would no longer be a member of parliament and thus send the case to the National Court. This difference of opinion is one of the reasons that Ábalos gave for breaking with Anibal Álvarez. If he had not chosen to invoke the right not to testify, Ábalos would have faced questions about the latest Civil Guard report that accuses him of having spent 95,000 euros of allegedly opaque origin and through Koldo in personal expenses.

No trace of the PSOE

In the ruling, Puente focuses the account of these clues on Ábalos's personal expenses and makes no mention of either the PSOE or the envelopes appearing in the report containing cash that the former minister of the party received during the expense report. The judge therefore ignores the suspicion of irregular financing by the Socialists, which the PP has raised since the report's publication. In fact, on the same day Ábalos was summoned to the Supreme Court, the PP activated the machinery in the Senate to bolster this hypothesis, with the appearance before the commission investigating the Koldo (or Ábalos or Cerdán) case of Carmen Pano, the businesswoman who claimed to have delivered 90,000 euros to the commission under investigation. The PP said they had "high expectations" regarding what Pano might say, but the businesswoman also declined to testify, although she confirmed what she said as a witness to the Supreme Court regarding the delivery of cash to Ferraz.