The judge withdraws the passports of the former president of Adif and the former director of Highways in the Cerdán case.

MadridThe Cristóbal Montoro scandal of alleged trafficking in laws during his second term in the Ministry of Finance has diverted the focus for a few days from the Cerdán case, also known as Ábalos or Koldo, which has been in the spotlight in recent months. Now, this Monday the investigation against the former number 3 of the PSOE and part of the leadership of the Ministry of Transport of José Luis Ábalos has taken a step further to the National Court with the questioning by Judge Ismael Moreno, who is presiding over the minor branch of the case of alleged illegal commissions in the awarding of public contracts, of The former president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera, and the former director general of Highways, Javier HerreroBoth have distanced themselves from the plot.

According to legal sources present at the statement, those investigated by the National Assembly have framed their activity and relationship with the former Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, and his former advisor, Koldo García, within the normal scope of administrative management. The bids targeted by the Civil Guard's Central Operative Unit (UCO) were awarded by Adif and the Directorate General of Roads. The hypothesis is that those responsible for them may have assisted the leaders of the plot to ensure that the companies that paid commissions were awarded the contracts. However, Pardo de Vera has denied this and defended herself by claiming that she did not have the authority to award contracts. The same sources explain that the former president of Adif has left Koldo in a bad light and complained about his conduct.

Pardo de Vera has recounted how Ábalos's former advisor interferes everywhere, despite having no training related to the matters he inquired about, and using "inappropriate" methods. The discontent with Koldo reached such a point that the former president of Adif has said she complained about him to Ábalos. Moreno accuses both her and Herrero of organized crime, bribery, and influence peddling. After hearing them, the judge, at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, agreed to revoke their passports and prohibit them from leaving Spain.

The evidence against Pardo de Vera and Herrero

Among the elements that lead Moreno to suspect Pardo de Vera and Herrero are messages exchanged with Koldo regarding contract awards and mentions made by the former advisor in conversations with Ábalos recorded in some of the audio recordings of the case. In one of these recordings, for example, the former advisor refers to "fourteen projects" belonging to Adif and tells Ábalos that "Isabel" told him that "five should be awarded to Acciona, Sacyr, or Ferrovial."

At another point, he also tells the former Minister of Transport that Pardo and Herrero "should give something" to the broker Víctor de Aldama, also under investigation by the Supreme Court, for his mediation. Another element that implicates Pardo de Vera is that in the search they made at his home They found documentation related to contracts for 5 million masks with the company Soluciones de Gestión, the medical supplies contractor for which Aldama worked.

Cerdán's view

This Tuesday (10:30 a.m.) three Supreme Court judges, including Pablo Llarena, the instructor of the Proceso case, along with Juan Ramón Berdugo and Antonio del Moral, will hear the arguments for and against Cerdán's imprisonment. In the appeal In the lawsuit filed by one of the lawyers for the former Socialist number 3, former CUP deputy in the Parliament, Benet Salellas, an argument with a political component is deployed. Salellas maintains that Cerdán is the victim of a "general" and "prospective" case against him. On the other hand, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which requested provisional imprisonment without bail, maintains that there is still a risk of destruction of evidence and that he remains in the Soto del Real penitentiary center.

The battle between these two narratives has been visible in the movements of recent days. While the UCO (Cultural University of Madrid) is increasing surveillance against Cerdán, even asking penitentiary institutions to report who visits him and when—one of the Civil Guard's obsessions is trace the money allegedly received from commissions and the means or accomplices to camouflage them without leaving a trace—Cerdán's defense insists that this method of operating against the former Socialist leader is not "normal." Salellas takes this argument to the extreme of questioning the veracity of the audio recordings in which Cerdán is allegedly heard speaking about the distribution of money with Ábalos and Koldo.