"Is it true that you engage in prostitution?": the ten moments of Ábalos' trial at the Supreme Court

MadridAfter fourteen sessions, the first trial against José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García and Víctor de Aldama will be ready for sentencing. Now the court, headed by Andrés Martínez Arrieta, will have to rule on whether to convict the former Minister of Transport and number three in the PSOE, and who became his permanent right-hand man, and whether to follow the Prosecutor's Office or the PP on the prison sentence for the “corrupting link” of the alleged plot. For a month, the Supreme Court has witnessed how one of Pedro Sánchez's first strongmen sat on the defendant's bench and has seen impactful scenes in a trial that will go down in history.

Two women from the circle of Ábalos

“Is it true that you are engaged in prostitution?”

One of the highlights of the trial was the testimony of Jessica Rodríguez, who was José Luis Ábalos' partner for a year. The former minister is accused of having placed her in two public companies. "Is it true that you are dedicated to prostitution?", Marino Turiel, Ábalos' lawyer, asked her. The president of the court, Andrés Martínez Arrieta, asked for the question to be rephrased. "Does your profession have to do with economic compensation in exchange for sex?", he reiterated. And she denied it: "I am a dentist and I am registered". She also pointed out that in 2019 she was an "image hostess".

Claudia Montes' books

The other woman allegedly plugged in is Claudia Montes, who stated that she had a “virtual relationship” with Ábalos, even though he said they had only met incidentally on two occasions. As a witness, she said that during work hours she went to the Oviedo library to “get books and read”. But she justified herself: “They were all related to trains, I wanted to know everything about them”.

Three relatives

Pilar or Piedad?

“For correctness and to follow my lawyer’s instructions, I prefer not to answer. I would like to, but if my lawyer advises me to, it must be for a reason”. This was the first response from Joseba García, Koldo García’s brother, when prosecutor Alejandro Luzón began the interrogation. He was exercising his right not to testify because he is under investigation by the National Court. But it wasn’t easy to get away with it. The prosecutor asked him if he knew Piedad Losada, Víctor de Aldama’s secretary, and he had to do everything he could to answer him. “It is not [a question] at all complex, but if she [the lawyer] has told me not to answer, I will try to do what my lawyer has advised me to do. [...] I don’t know who Pilar is,” he said. It wasn’t Pilar, but Piedad. Joseba García ended up admitting that he had seen her on some occasion.

“Fuck you”

The same day Patricia Uriz, Koldo García's ex-wife, testified. Her lawyer, Leticia de la Hoz, asked her how she had saved Carolina Perles, José Luis Ábalos' ex-wife, in her phone: “Sometimes I referred to her when I spoke with Koldo as ‘Bitch one’”, she admitted. But she was self-critical: “I am truly very sorry, but my relationship with Carolina was quite bad. I am not proud of it at all”.

Coffee or secure mobiles?

The first witness was Víctor Ábalos, the ex-minister's son. Among other things, he denied using coded language to communicate with Koldo: “I don't speak in code nor have I had an encrypted phone”. The Civil Guard believes the term coffee or coffee maker was a euphemism for secure mobiles, but he said no: “When it refers to coffee, it is coffee originating from Colombia. They asked me for coffee, and it refers simply to that”, he assured. And he attributed it to his “continuous trips” to Colombia: “Koldo really likes coffee, as does my father-in-law and many other people”.

Koldo's lawyer

The collision of a wild boar

The most marathon session of the trial was on Monday, April 27. The Civil Guard agents who participated in the investigation were testifying, and the session lasted beyond midnight. At the last minute, Koldo García's lawyer, Leticia de la Hoz, surprised the witnesses and the court with a question about the financial reports of Ábalos's former advisor. She asked if the armed institute took into account that Koldo received an “indemnity” from Mapfre for “the running over of a wild boar”. When he testified, Koldo clarified that the wild boar ran over him and complained that he received it eight years after the incident.

Tangled up with the prosecutor

During Koldo's interrogation, there was a loud clash between the lawyer and Alejandro Luzón. He was asking about the rent of La Alcaidessa – suspecting it was a consideration in exchange for a hydrocarbon license management –, she protested and the prosecutor exploded: “I will ask not to be interrupted in the middle of an interrogation. It has not happened to me in 35 years of professional practice that a lawyer interrupts in the middle of a question. I have been enduring this throughout the trial”, he exclaimed. At another point, he clashed with Koldo García. “Refreshing my memory is worthwhile”, the accused admitted to him. “Let me finish, do not address me and do not interrupt me”, complained the prosecutor.

The three defendants

Aldama shoots at Sanchez

The first of the accused to testify was Víctor de Aldama. The big headline was to point directly at Pedro Sánchez, whom he accused of being at the top of a criminal gang, but without any proof to accredit it: "If there is a hierarchy of a criminal gang, Sánchez is at the first rung", he said. "I was told that the president knew everything", he added. He also pointed out – equally without proving it – that construction companies paid illegal commissions that were used to finance the PSOE.

Koldo and the sausages

The following was Koldo García, who revealed one of the great mysteries of the trial: answering his lawyer, he confirmed that when he or his wife spoke of "xistorres" they were referring to 500 euro notes. However, last October, he had assured that they were “sausages”. In the Supreme Court he said there were also some of these, but admitted that it was actually coded language. The banknotes he received came from the PSOE, the Civil Guard and tourists to whom he rented an apartment in Benidorm.

Abalos says no money has been found for him

The last one was José Luis Ábalos, who boasted that the investigation has not found the money he allegedly pocketed. The Civil Guard detected payments of 94,800 euros of unknown origin. “This is what they have found out of so many millions they say I have taken”, complained the former number three of the PSOE. “Is this the great mask corruption case?”, he asked himself ironically. “There has been no way to find anything else. They can try hard, they won't find anything”, he insisted.