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, is reaching its final stage. 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 is prosecutor Alejandro Luzón. "The number one was not the president of the Spanish government, as Aldama attributes to him, with notable relief," he said in the initial part of his speech. However, he stressed that José Luis Ábalos was at the "top" or 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" within the Ministry of Transport.

The then minister "rarely descended to the playing field and the material execution of the crimes," but rather relied on Koldo's "loyalty, omnipresence, and effectiveness." "That should not make us forget that the person on whom decisions depended was Ábalos," he emphasized. And it was not until Ábalos was dismissed as minister, in July 2021, that the structure began to "dissipate and dwindle." For the prosecutor, the facts have been "fully proven" and there is "abundant and damning" evidence. He considers that the increase in wealth of Ábalos and Koldo has not been explained and that it has been demonstrated that they had a "hidden and opaque source of income."

"It may be surprising that we speak of a criminal organization with a minister. It has been a long time since criminal organizations realized the advantages of corruption and the enormous amount of money that can be earned. It is a perfect symbiosis in which some provide economic capacity and others the ability to remove obstacles," stated Alejandro Luzón. He does not care who went to find whom, but rather that the "insistence" and "lack of resistance" ended in a "corrupt pact that benefited everyone."

The purchase of face 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 were arriving and did not 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 full pandemic "according to the needs and interests" of Aldama and its partners. After this alliance, it was necessary to "build the puppet" and "adapt the contracting" to this pact.