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

MadridSeen for ruling. The trial of the mask case in the Supreme Court, which began a month ago, has come to an end. It has been the moment for the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the PP – which leads the popular prosecutions – and the three defense teams to verbalize their conclusions. The first to speak was the prosecutor. "The number one was not the president of the Spanish government, as, to Aldama's notable relief, he attributes to him," he said in the initial part of his speech. It was the businessman's new accusation, and prosecutor Alejandro Luzón has distanced himself completely. That said, he has highlighted that José Luis Ábalos was at the "top" or in the "essential cog" of the organization. In his opinion, he, Koldo García, and Víctor de Aldama – along with other individuals – formed a "true criminal organization" that was born from a "corrupting pact that interested everyone" as a result of "insistence" and "little resistance" and that it did not "dissipate and exhaust itself" until Ábalos was dismissed as minister in July 2021.

For the prosecutor, there is "abundant and devastating" evidence and the facts have been "fully proven." Alejandro Luzón concluded his speech, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes, with a plea against corruption: "It is eating away at our democratic system, and only a forceful reaction against it can stop it." "With organic, organized, and continuous corruption, citizens' trust in democratic institutions, which these criminals pervert by putting them at their service, is diminishing," he stated.

Believes it is "possible" to further reduce Aldama's sentence

Believes it is "possible" to further reduce Aldama's sentence

Koldo García says the PP offered him to "lie"

Koldo García says the PP offered him to "lie"Ábalos sees himself as "collateral damage" from Aldama

Ábalos sees himself as "collateral damage" from Aldama"Aldama joins a criminal organization"

During his report, José Antonio Choclán, Aldama's lawyer, boasted about the businessman's "laudable" and "titanic" collaboration with justice: "We are fighting against the state apparatus and, in this crusade, he knows he is taking on a difficult role." And he claimed that all of this "requires a reward" that serves to "encourage and incentivize" such conduct. "What more can be done than explaining the truth?" he asked.

Regarding the genesis of the alleged scheme, he assured that Aldama "did not constitute and did not create a criminal organization," but rather "integrated into a criminal organization that had been operating since 2015." "He is recruited," he added. "He does not corrupt them, he establishes a relationship with high-ranking officials who were already corrupt," he stressed. This is a statement that Ábalos later branded a "fable."

Koldo and Ábalos's defense teams request acquittal

which turns into an undesirable being", he joked.

Finally, the former minister's lawyer, Marino Turiel, argued that the face mask purchase contracts were "impeccable", stressed that "there is no trace" of illegal commission payments, and denounced the "hypersensitivity" of the Prosecutor's Office in reducing Aldama's sentence. He also lashed out at the case: he believes it has had a "political connotation" and that the Civil Guard's investigation was "quite prospective". "It's a kind of generic curse, the corrupt minister urbi et orbi who becomes an undesirable being", he ironically stated.