The saved from the Kitchen case: Rajoy, Cospedal and nine more
The former number two of the PP and her ex-husband were investigated for 58 days, but judge Manuel García-Castellón ended up clearing them
MadridThe Kitchen case has put the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior under Jorge Fernández Díaz on the accused's bench, accused of spying on Luis Bárcenas and trying to steal information that could compromise the PP. Throughout the investigation, Judge Manuel García-Castellón drew a fine but robust line to confine the suspected facts to the ministry and leave the party aside. However, during the investigation, there were other relevant figures who were investigated or whom the Prosecutor's Office requested to indict. Mariano Rajoy is not on the list: in September 2021, the Prosecutor's Office pointed to a "possible responsibility" of the former Spanish Prime Minister, but no one ever formally requested that he be investigated. As a witness, and despite the existence of an audio from María Dolores de Cospedal that directly implicates him in the operation, he denied having destroyed evidence of the PP's 'caja B'. Who are the ten saved?
Cospedal and his entourage
1. María Dolores de Cospedal
She is the great protected name in the judicial case. In June 2021, the judge indicted her because her name appeared in José Manuel Villarejo's diaries, and this led him to believe that she had participated in the “capturing” of Sergio Ríos, Luis Bárcenas's driver, as a confidential informant. The magistrate believed that her intervention could have been “decisive” for him to decide to get involved. However, two months later, he backtracked and closed the door on it. He dismissed that Cospedal exercised “ideological leadership” or had “intellectual participation” in the operation and exonerated her.
Two months ago, as a witness, Cospedal admitted that she had met with Villarejo several times, but denied giving him any orders, despite the audios that demonstrate she conspired with him to pursue independentism. At the time, the judge justified her exclusion by arguing that “no one can be a suspect” for having met with Villarejo. More than three years later, the PSOE requested to reopen the investigation after new audios incriminating her appeared and at the start of the trial made a final effort. But she never succeeded.
2. Ignacio López del Hierro
He is Cospedal's ex-husband and his passage through the case was identical: he was also investigated because the judge suspected that he had participated in the recruitment of Sergio Ríos and was exempted. Of course, he was the one who introduced Villarejo to Cospedal: "He was interested and my wife thought it was fine".
3. José Luis Ortiz Grande
He was Cospedal's chief of staff at the presidency of Castilla-La Mancha and at the general secretariat of the PP. He was also investigated in June and July 2021, but no diligence – apart from Villarejo's diaries – provided specifics about his role. As a witness, he explained how he brought the commissioner into the PP's headquarters: he would pick him up around Génova street, they would enter the building through the parking lot and go up to Cospedal's office. He never knew what they talked about, he just limited himself to "summoning him".
About to sit on the defendants' bench
4. Enrique García Castaño
The fourth one not being judged is Enrique García Castaño, known as El Gordo” between Jorge Fernández Díaz and Daniel de Alfonso.
la Fiscalía te lo afina” between Jorge Fernández Díaz and Daniel de Alfonso.
Two police commands
Two names that the Prosecutor's Office wanted to investigate and that Manuel García-Castellón never ended up imputing were Ignacio Cosidó, who was director general of the National Police, and Mariano Hervás, who was number two in the Central Operational Support Unit.
5. Ignacio Cosidó
The public prosecutor's office requested an investigation into Ignacio Cosidó for the “possible involvement” of “political and governmental officials” in the “conception, launch, development and control” of the operation. However, the investigating judge dismissed it: “The generality of the terms in which the request is formulated is striking, without reference to any specific data, indication, expression or statement,” he argued. Last April, when he declared as a witness, he assured that he had no “knowledge” of hearing about an operation called Kitchen.
6. Mariano Hervás
Regarding Mariano Hervás, the Prosecutor's Office believed that Villarejo's diary reflected his “active participation” in the surveillance of those around Bárcenas. Nevertheless, the judge considered that the one directing them from a “preeminent position” was Enrique García Castaño and replied that there were no indications of Mariano Hervás's intervention in the “planning, organization or direction” of the operation.
Two police officers who followed orders in the surveillance
The following are two police officers who were investigated for several months, but were eventually exonerated because the judge considered that they were limited to “following orders from their hierarchical superior” and it was not proven that they knew they were doing anything illegal.
7. José Francisco González García
He was the head of the Special Area of Monitoring of the UCAO from 2002 to 2015 and coordinated the surveillance operation on Rosalía Iglesias. Despite this, the one who took the lead was Enrique García Castaño and the judge did not find "any element" that placed him in the "group of individuals who organized" the operation.
8. Jesús Vicente Galán Martínez
He was head of surveillance for the Internal Affairs Unit. The head of the unit, Marcelino Martín Blas, ordered him to watch the surroundings of Rosalía Iglesias' workshop to locate a car. The argument was that a woman could be in danger. When they arrived, they saw license plates of vehicles from the General Information Commissariat and, subsequently, the surveillance was ended.
Two more actors
9. Enrique Olivares
The penultimate is known as thefake priest. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison by a judge in Madrid for kidnapping the family of Luis Bárcenas – while he was in prison – at their home, posing as a priest to try to obtain all the documentation from the former treasurer of the PP. The investigation did not allow to “trace any link” between the assault and the Kitchen case. He died in January 2022.
10. Alberto Vela Navarro-Rubio
In 2020, Manuel García-Castellón commissioned a court in Maó to investigate this Minorcan notary for an alleged crime of revelation of secrets for having warned Francisco Martínez that he was being investigated. This was after the judge asked him – in secret – for the messages he had notarized from a conversation between the former number two of the Interior Ministry and Jorge Fernández Díaz that would show that the minister knew about the plot. However, the magistrate – following the Public Prosecutor's request – shelved the case after a year of investigation, alleging that it had not been possible to prove that he had committed the crime.