Cerdán risks his freedom before Llarena (and two judges of the trial court)

MadridSantos Cerdán has been in the Soto del Real penitentiary for three weeks now. Entered on June 30 After the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office had heard him testify as a suspect, he was remanded in custody without bail. This Tuesday, a court composed of Pablo Llarena, the investigator in the Proceso case, and judges Juan Ramón Berdugo and Antonio del Moral, who served on the Supreme Court's trial of the pro-independence leaders, will review the decision by Leopoldo Puente, the investigator in the Cerdán case, to imprison him. The former number three of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) is the only one of those under investigation who is not free. In the case of former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor, Koldo García, Puente confiscated their passports and requires them to appear in court every two weeks.

Cerdán's defense team rejects this distinction and, in an appeal, requests his release. One of his lawyers is former CUP deputy in the Parliament, Benet Salellas, who will be familiar with both the Supreme Court and the trial judges. Salellas defended the former president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, with a political defense strategy. This strategy bears similarities to the one he pursues with Cerdán, despite the differences between the two cases. In the appeal, Salellas maintains that Cerdán is the victim of a "general" and "prospective" case against him. He also highlights the "proven interest" of political parties such as the PP and Vox in seeing him behind bars.

In the opinion of the defense of the man who until a month ago was Pedro Sánchez's right-hand man, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is seeking to force a "confession" from their client and cites the background of Víctor de Aldama, also investigated as an alleged commissioner in other contracts related to Ábalos and Koldo. Aldama is the only person under investigation in this case, which occurred in Soto del Real—for another case, the hydrocarbon fraud—and was released after admitting to the facts related to the Koldo or Ábalos case. In his statement, Salellas warns that this is an "illegitimate" motivation. Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office maintains that there is still a risk of evidence being destroyed—the Civil Guard has not yet searched Cerdán's home and his family is barely moving—and advocates for him to remain in prison.

Doubts about the audio recordings

The battle between the two narratives has been evident in the movements of the past week. While the UCO is increasing its surveillance of Cerdán, even asking the Penitentiary Institutions to report who visits him and when—one of the Civil Guard's obsessions is trace the money allegedly received from commissions and the ways or accomplices to camouflage them without leaving a trace - Cerdán's defense insists that this method of operating against the former socialist leader is not "normal." Salellas takes this argument to the extreme of questioning the veracity of the audio recordings in which Cerdán is allegedly heard talking about the distribution of money with Ábalos and Koldo, whom he also points to as a "possible police collaborator."

"They are not the best guaranteeing, objective and independent evidence to use to agree to provisional imprisonment in a democratic criminal trial," says Salellas. The three judges of the Supreme Court's criminal chamber will have to assess it starting at 10:30 a.m. in a hearing that will be held behind closed doors the following day. Two of those investigated in the branch of the case at the National Court were released yesterday. After testifying—with his passport revoked and a ban on leaving the country—they are Isabel Pardo de Vera, former president of Adif, and Javier Herrero, former director general of Highways, whom the investigation attributes to a secondary role, unlike the leadership of the plot attributed to Cerdán.

Isla's appearance in Parliament

Cerdán's statement comes on the same day that the president of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, will appear in Parliament specifically for this case. He does so at the request of Junts, PP, and Vox, who asked the socialist leader to explain whether he has any connection to the plot. In fact, in the recent control sessions in the chamber, the PP leader, Alejandro Fernández has already tried to link Isla to the case Arguing that his name appears in the audio recordings due to his alleged conversations with Chili, a person Isla claimed he had "no fucking idea" who he was.

The president has repeatedly distanced himself from the plot and has denied having received commissions for the purchase of masks, one of the issues being investigated in the Koldo case. He asserted, in this regard, that he is "clean and ready to face the public." The Presidency insists that Isla will provide full explanations this Tuesday, because the president "has nothing to do" with the case. His intervention will be based on a "defense of the nobility of politics" against the right's "attacks" on institutions. Until now, moreover, Illa has been one of the Socialist voices who has most strongly defended the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, and is willing to do so again if necessary in the plenary session of the Parliament, according to reports. Mireia Esteve.