Mazón asks to appear in the DANA case

BarcelonaThe former Valencian president Carlos Mazón has asked the judge of Catarroja investigating the dana management, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, to appear in the case and have access to all the information it contains. He has done so in a document that he has sent to the court after the judge summoned him last week to testify as a witness - a summons that does not yet have a date - and that the Valencian Superior Court of Justice (TSJPV) rejected the request to investigate him.

In the document to the court, submitted on behalf of Mazón by lawyer Ignacio Gally and to which ARA has had access, it is stated that the former president has maintained until now a position of "maximum respect" towards the investigation of the case despite having "indirect knowledge" of the practice of actions that "directly affected his legal sphere". "This position of procedural prudence was not due to any passivity, but to a conscious decision not to interfere either in the actions of the investigating judge or in those of the Superior Court of Justice of the Comunitat Valenciana," it is stated. But once the TSJ has rejected his indictment, and "fully sharing the conclusions reached by this body" - it is pointed out in the document -, Mazón requests his "voluntary appearance" to "analyze the proceedings that are still being carried out against him".

It should be taken into account that, although the Superior Court unanimously rejected Mazón's indictment, it validated Ruiz Tobarra's work and asked her to continue investigating. "The decision [...] does not mean that the proceedings cannot continue in the civil and investigating section," detailed the five judges of the civil and criminal chamber. "On the contrary, it can and should proceed to resolve with freedom of criteria," they added. For now, however, they consider that Mazón "did not incur any infraction [...] in emergency matters", exempting him from responsibilities in this matter, and that he did not engage in behavior that "constitutes a crime".

"All he wants is to escape"

Tobarra, who had proposed up to three times to Mazón that he voluntarily appear before last week's summons, requested that the Alicante politician be investigated for manslaughter and reckless injury and failure to render assistance for an action he described as "negligent inactivity". But so far it has not moved forward, nor have the Valencian opposition parties.

"It is truly shameful, truly disgusting, to see that Mr. Mazón is capable of saying that he has always respected the instruction. If he had the utmost respect for justice, when he was invited to appear before the judge, he would have appeared," reacted this Monday the leader of Compromís, Joan Baldoví, to the request for the former president to be formally involved. "The only thing he intends is to try to escape the responsibilities he had that day and which, unfortunately, he did not exercise, and that is why we had 230 deaths," he stated, asking the current head of the Consell, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, to demand his seat.