The judge in the DANA case requests that Carlos Mazón be charged.

ValenciaJudge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, who is presiding over the DANA storm case, has taken the step of requesting the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community to indict Carlos Mazón for manslaughter, negligent injury, and failure to provide assistance due to what she has described as "negligent inaction" in the handling of the storm. This decision elevates the case to the regional court, which will have to decide on the future of the former president, who retains his protected status as a member of the Valencian Parliament. If the Valencian High Court accepts the judge's arguments, Mazón will join former Minister of Justice and the Interior Salomé Pradas and her former deputy, Emilio Agüero, who are the only other defendants in the case so far.

In the written statement by Ruiz Tobarra, which ARA has obtained, the judge affirms that the Generalitat's "negligence" continued "for long hours" despite the fact that deaths "were occurring relentlessly" and without "basic decisions being made." The judge maintains that Pradas and Argüeso cannot be held "solely" responsible for this inaction, and also includes Mazón for his lack of "coordination" within the regional administration—a task entrusted by law to the head of the Consell—as the Provincial Court of Valencia pointed out a few months ago. This argument has underpinned the magistrate's recent questioning of the former president's top aides.

The magistrate also bases her decision on the conversation that took place on the afternoon of the catastrophe, October 29, 2024, between Mazón's former chief of staff, José Manuel Cuenca, and Salomé Pradas. In this conversation, the former official instructed the then-regional minister not to confine the population, specifically telling her, "No confinement, Salo." According to the investigating judge, this expression has "a clearly imperative character," and his position as Mazón's right-hand man makes his messages "orders" and not "mere opinions or advice." For the judge, Cuenca expressed "an insistence on controlling the emergency that can only logically be explained by him obeying instructions from his superior." In this regard, she points out that his words "generated a paralysis at crucial moments" that was "decisive in the deadly outcome of the emergency response." Furthermore, she recalls that Cuenca told Pradas that the president would arrive shortly, words which, according to the judge, were "a way of telling him to wait for Mazón's arrival" before making a decision.

Ruiz Tobarra's decision comes after the testimony of the former head of the Valencian government, who on Friday confirmed the falsity of the multiple versions offered by the PP leader and his team regarding their handling of the disaster, and especially regarding his arrival at the Palau de la Generalitat and the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (CECOPI). According to sources present at his appearance who spoke to ARA, the driver stated that the first ES-Alert – at 8:11 p.m. – sounded while Mazón was heading to the Emergency Coordination Center, located in the metropolitan town of L'Eliana, and before he had even left the city of Valencia. The driver's account coincides with the version given by his bodyguards on February 9, who placed the PP leader's arrival at the Palau at 7:50 p.m. "He was alone. He went up to the office and said, 'I'll be right down and we'll leave,'" they explained. This also coincides with the testimony of the head of the security detail, who admitted that it was "exceptional" that he returned from the El Ventorro restaurant without security. "Normally, he tells us his pick-up time," he summarized. Conversely, Josep Lanuza, advisor to former Valencian president Carlos Mazón, stated this Monday that the former head of the Consell arrived at the Palau on the day of the DANA storm "between 7:30 and 7:42 p.m." This version suggests that Mazón was, albeit for a very brief period of 25 minutes, monitoring the flooding in his office. The accounts of the driver and the bodyguards would corroborate Mazón's lies. He initially denied being at a meal and claimed he had been working in his office since early afternoon. Later, he admitted to having lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana at the restaurant, but maintained that he returned to the Palau around 6:00 p.m. and joined the Cecopi (Emergency Coordination Center) shortly after 7:00 p.m. Later, he delayed his arrival at his office until 7 p.m. It wasn't until November 2025, more than a year after the disaster, that it was discovered that after a nearly four-hour lunch, the former president had accompanied the journalist to a nearby parking lot. They reportedly said goodbye shortly after 7:30 p.m., and the former head of the Consell arrived at the Palau at 7:50 p.m. and at the Cecopi at 8:28 p.m.