The Prosecutor's Office does not buy Aldama's account that Sánchez was the "number 1" in the Koldo case

MadridThe trial of the face mask case at the Supreme Court, which began a month ago, reaches its final stages. It is time for the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the PP – which leads the popular prosecutions – and the three defense teams to state their conclusions. The first to speak was prosecutor Alejandro Luzón. "The number one was not the president of the Spanish government, as Aldama attributes to him, with notable relief," he said at the beginning of his speech. However, he stressed that José Luis Ábalos was at the "pinnacle" or "essential cog" of the organization. In his opinion, he, Koldo García, and Víctor de Aldama – along with others – formed a "true criminal organization" that "was born" within the Ministry of Transport and did not "dissipate and end" until Ábalos was dismissed as minister in July 2021. The prosecutor concluded his speech, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes, with a plea against corruption: "It is corroding our democratic system and only a forceful reaction against it can stop it." "With organic, organized, and continuous corruption, it isdiminishing citizens' trust in democratic institutions, which these criminals pervert by putting them at their service," he reiterated.

For the prosecutor, the facts have been "fully proven" and there is "abundant and damning" evidence. He believes that the increase in assets of Ábalos and Koldo has not been explained and that it has been proven that they had a "hidden and opaque source of income." He thinks that one of the alternative explanations given by Ábalos was "inconsistent and not very credible" and that Koldo's brother's excuses were "so childish that they are pathetic and moving." "It may seem strange that we speak of a criminal organization with a minister. Criminal organizations have long realized the advantages of corruption, the political support it provides, and the enormous amount of money that can be earned in a perfect symbiosis where some provide economic capacity and others the ability to remove obstacles," stated Alejandro Luzón. He doesn't care who went to find whom, but rather that "insistence" and "little resistance" led to a "corrupting pact that benefited everyone." After Ábalos questioned a "permanent bias" of the Civil Guard, the prosecutor expressed "pride" in the investigation: "The Spanish citizens should also be proud."

It is "possible" and "admissible" to further reduce Aldama's sentence

Alejandro Luzón also took the opportunity to defend Víctor de Aldama's role and the sentence reduction requested by the Prosecutor's Office: "If we truly want to combat criminal organizations and corruption, we must reward those who leave the criminal environment and report it. Otherwise, the law of silence will prevail," he defended. The prosecutor is asking for seven years in prison for the businessman, despite the fact that the PP reduced the initial request so that he can avoid prison and his defense was claiming a lower sentence and the. "It is possible to appreciate the mitigating circumstance as highly qualified [as the PP] and it is admissible to value the privileged mitigating circumstance [as his defense]," the prosecutor acknowledged. And he highlighted that his statements "were not aimed at minimizing or concealing" his involvement, but rather that the businessman has admitted his "decisive participation." He believes that his statement is not "determining" because there is "abundant" evidence, but it was indeed to "advance in many aspects" of the investigation.

The purchase of masks

Regarding the purchase of masks from Soluciones de Gestión, the company at the epicenter of the alleged scheme, Alejandro Luzón argued that the "most significant" thing is that the Ministry of Transport "closed itself off to new offers," that they "didn't even take them into consideration" because there was a "prior and established agreement" with Aldama that "could not be modified." In other words, "the object of the emergency" was defined in the midst of the pandemic "according to the needs and interests" of Aldama and its partners. After this alliance, it was necessary to "build the doll" and "adapt the contracting" to this pact.

The nepotism of the women in Ábalos's circle

"Public companies cannot be a space for the discretionary placement, refuge, and parking of politicians and the support of family members or friends," he said regarding the two women that José Luis Ábalos allegedly placed in Ineco, Trasgsatec, and Logirail. He believes this responds to the "awareness of full control" over these companies, to an "almost colonial context" in which the minister's "mere wishes" are being assumed as "executive orders" in a "chain of influences throughout a servile court."