Ábalos declares (today yes) in the trial for the case that keeps him in prison

MadridJosé Luis Ábalos finally declares this morning in the trial for the mask case before the Supreme Court. The former Minister of Transport, who the judge has kept in preventive detention for almost half a year, appears as an investigated person after two morning sessions in which the court had to modify the initial schedule that set the interrogation of the former socialist leader for last Wednesday.

One of the longest sessions was that of the alleged commissioner of the plot, the businessman Víctor de Aldama, who shot indiscriminately against Pedro Sánchez, whom he placed "at the top rung" of the "criminal gang", and Ábalos just below him. The former minister, who has always declared himself innocent, will have to answer about these accusations and also about the alleged illegal financing of the PSOE, a fact that the party has always denied.

Ábalos faces a request from the Prosecutor's Office for 24 years in prison for alleged maneuvers in public mask contracts in exchange for commissions. According to Aldama, the former socialist organization secretary would have received up to 3.5 million for these dealings, and his former advisor Koldo García, also in prison and who declared last week, 4 million more.

Ábalos also faces the accusation of having influenced the hiring of his ex-partner Jéssica Rodríguez and Claudia Montes in public companies. After his statement, in the trial that began last April 7, only the documentary evidence and the final reports of the prosecutions and defenses will remain to be heard. This Tuesday could see the case ready for sentencing.