Villarejo, in the Kitchen case trial: "The CNI was worried because Bárcenas had information that could affect high-level state officials"

San Fernando de HenaresThe statements of the accused in the Kitchen case trial continue. After Jorge Fernández Díaz and Francisco Martínez played dumb and, despite some contradictions, distanced themselves from the espionage against Luis Bárcenas, it is the turn of Eugenio Pino – who was deputy director of operations of the National Police – and José Manuel Villarejo – retired commissioner of the Spanish police. The Prosecutor's Office is requesting fifteen years in prison for Pino and nineteen for Villarejo, which is the highest sentence, for alleged crimes of cover-up, embezzlement, violation of privacy, and passive bribery. The first revelation made by Villarejo was about the origin of the concern or interest in the documentation held by the former PP treasurer. "I had met with CNI officials. They told me they were very worried because Bárcenas had information that could affect high-level State instances," he stated. Therefore, he made it clear that the "first information" of interest about Bárcenas reached him through the CNI and not from Francisco Martínez, who was Secretary of State for Security.

He also explained that it was "vital" for Sergio Ríos, Bárcenas's chauffeur and also seated in the dock, to cooperate because he was a person of "total trust" of the former PP treasurer and could be the person who transported "delicate material" across the border. According to him, it was cash, jewelry, and works of art that he would use to "launder illicit proceeds." Likewise, he expressed his conviction that in 2017 there was a meeting between Mariano Rajoy, the former king, and the then director of the CNI, Félix Sanz Roldán, to pursue him: "They decided to destroy me because I was a bothersome witness." And he complained about the "treatment" he received after "all the work" he had done. Villarejo, who is the first defendant to answer the prosecutor's questions, refused to provide explanations about his diaries, which are a key piece of evidence in the trial.

"We weren't looking for the documents, we were trying to find the money"

The first to testify has been Eugenio Pino. He denied that the Spanish police gave the operation the name Kitchenand justified that the operation around the former treasurer of the PP was conceived to pursue the money he allegedly had abroad and not to find documentation related to the PP's slush fund. "When there is a car waiting to go and collect money, obviously a service must be set up, no matter how we position ourselves. We were not looking for documents, what we were trying [to find] was the money, there were reports about the existence of other different accounts," he justified. Likewise, he pointed directly to Ignacio Cosidó, who was the director general of the National Police. When he testified as a witness, he distanced himself from the operation and said he had no "knowledge" of the espionage against Bárcenas. Eugenio Pino explained that he was the one who proposed that the operation concerning Bárcenas and his family should be led by José Manuel Villarejo instead of the Internal Affairs Unit.

According to his account, it was a car that was in a garage and was supposedly going to Switzerland. Sergio Ríos, who was Luis Bárcenas' driver and became a confidential informant for the Spanish police, reported: "It seems that Bárcenas had told our collaborator; it is information that he passes on to us and I say that we must pay attention to it," highlighted Eugenio Pino. "Did he ever have the suspicion or knowledge that Villarejo and Enrique García Castaño had carried out any irregular or illegal operation?", his lawyer asked him. "Not at all. I am a co-founder of the internal affairs brigade, how would I allow it?", he replied. He also explained that he authorized payments with reserved funds to Sergio Ríos and told Villarejo to "contact" him: "He was willing to help us, we asked for his collaboration for a series of reasons".

One of the proper names in the statement was Enrique García Castaño, who was the head commissioner of the Central Unit for Operational Support (UCAO). He was supposed to sit on the defendants' bench, but the National Court cleared him after he suffered a stroke. The prosecution claims he managed to enter a workshop belonging to Luis Bárcenas's wife where there was information about the "caja B" (slush fund), but he has questioned this: "I don't think he entered, because I know him... It doesn't add up." "He's a spy, spies are always relative," he later quipped. Furthermore, he denied giving instructions to García Castaño to recruit Bárcenas's driver and assured that it was the former head of the UCAO who "approached him" – recruited him as an informant – first. During his statement, in his usual style, he was enigmatic when he said he would like to explain certain things that would be an "earthquake," acknowledged that the Spanish police leadership creates "unsolvable enemies," and spoke tangentially about Operation Catalonia and the Pujol case.

In recent weeks, the National Court has heard dozens of audio recordings from the retired commissioner, which are the essence of the documentary evidence in the trial. Among them, conversations were heard with María Dolores de Cospedal – former general secretary of the PP – and her ex-husband, businessman Ignacio López del Ferro. Conversations were also heard with Francisco Martínez, with commissioner Andrés Gómez Gordo, with businessman Adrián de la Joia, and with José Luis Olivera – former head of the Economic and Fiscal Crimes Unit (UDEF) of the National Police, who also sits on the defendants' bench.