D-Day at the Supreme Court: Ábalos and Koldo testify in the mask case trial

MadridNew decisive day at the Supreme Court. After the explosive declaration of Víctor de Aldama, who decided to pull out the machine gun to shoot indiscriminately and try to splash Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE's funding, it is the turn of the man who was number three in the socialists and the strongman of the Spanish president. José Luis Ábalos faces between 24 and 30 years in prison for crimes such as belonging to a criminal organization, bribery, influence peddling, and embezzlement. And today he will have the opportunity to give explanations. Before him, it will be the turn of his right-hand man in the Ministry of Transport, Koldo García. Both have been in Soto del Real prison since the end of November.

In a six-and-a-half-hour statement, and without providing any evidence, the businessman and alleged fixer of the plot implicated Pedro Sánchez in the Koldo case and stated that construction companies illegally financed the PSOE. "If there is a hierarchy of a criminal organization, Sánchez is at the top level," he said. "I was told that the president knew everything," he added. He ratified that he paid 10,000 euros a month to Ábalos and Koldo: "They always told me that part of that money went to the financing of the Socialist Party," he highlighted. And he stated that Koldo told him that Sánchez "knew and was clear" about everything they were doing.

The second prong that splashed the PSOE's finances had to do with construction companies. Koldo would have introduced Aldama to construction companies that worked for the ministry: "We have to see how we can help them so that they get the tender. In the end, they will get it, but if we help them win, we can have a return that we need for the party's financing," he recalled that Ábalos's advisor would have explained to him.

What is the Prosecutor's Office accusing them of?

According to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the then minister used his “valuable influence”, the advisor took advantage of his “services”, and the businessman and alleged facilitator sought companies or individuals who wanted to deal with the administration to assert their interests in an “arbitrary” manner. All this, in exchange for the “continued payment of large sums of money” within the framework of a “criminal conspiracy”.

In his defense statement, the former minister completely denies having carried out any “criminal plan” to facilitate public contracts in exchange for a commission: “There were no illegal incomes,” he emphasizes. And he stresses that the prices paid were neither “excessive” nor “higher than market prices or those paid by other administrations”.