Cerdán's defense team denies the risk of destroying evidence: "They're using prison as a tool of coercion."

MadridSantos Cerdán has been in the Soto del Real penitentiary for three weeks now. Entered on June 30, after he testified as a suspect and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office requested provisional imprisonment without bail for him. The investigating judge in the Cerdán case, Leopoldo Puente, is seeking to imprison him. Cerdán, according to legal sources.

The former number three in the PSOE is the only one of those under investigation who is not free. Release him. One of the arguments he has used before the three magistrates—who have not yet announced their decision—is that there has been ample time, since the report by the Civil Guard's Central Operative Unit (UCO) pointing to Cerdán was made public on June 16, to search the suspect's home and order it. "If there really was a risk of destroying evidence, why wasn't he arrested on June 17?" his lawyers have argued. Jordi Cuixart of Òmnium Cultural with a political defense line. A strategy that has similarities with the one followed with Cerdán, despite the differences between the two cases. The PP and Vox are seeking to see him behind bars. However, at the hearing, both Salellas and Cerdán's other lawyer, Jacobo Teijelo, have deployed legal arguments. The UCO has increased surveillance of Cerdán, even asking the Penitentiary Institutions to be informed of who visits him and when, which they perceive as a violation of the right to defense and confidentiality in communications with his lawyers. "We have gone from a presumption of innocence to a presumption of this presumption." The Penitentiary Institutions informed the Supreme Court this Tuesday that they have decided to stop informing the UCO about these visits. A commission agent in other contracts related to Ábalos and Koldo.

One of the main issues for Cerdán's defense is the audio recordings recorded by Koldo and included in the UCO report. Salellas and Teijelo question the veracity of the recordings, in which Cerdán is allegedly heard discussing the distribution of money with Ábalos and his former advisor, whom they also identify as a "possible police collaborator." In response to this argument, the Supreme Court will conduct a dumping of the contents of Koldo's three phones and recorder this Wednesday morning. The dumping of the devices can be supervised by the parties. The defense has complained that they have not had access to the originals so far. "They are not the best, objective, and independent evidence to use to agree to pretrial detention in a democratic criminal trial," says Salellas and Teijelo's brief.

Cerdán's life in prison

The same sources from Cerdán's defense explained that their client has adapted to life in Soto del Real and is "in good spirits." He told them, they say, that for him "it's not so important when he gets out, but how." That is, "without subterfuge and maintaining his innocence." They also affirmed that he has a good relationship with the other inmates and shared Salellas' book with some of them. I accuse. The defense in political trials, which Cerdán is also reading.