The Supreme Court names Santos Cerdán as the leader of the corruption plot and sends him to prison.

MadridA dramatic change in the Cerdán case. Supreme Court investigating judge Leopoldo Puente has ordered the former PSOE leader to be held in pretrial detention without bail at the request of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. The public prosecutor's representative argued that there was a risk of destruction of evidence and the flight of the "leader" of the alleged criminal network, and the judge agreed. Sources close to the former leader admit that the decision was unexpected due to the difference in treatment compared to the other suspects: former minister José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García have precautionary measures requiring the revocation of their passports and the obligation to appear in court every two weeks. In a matter of days, Cerdán has gone from being Pedro Sánchez's right-hand man at Ferraz to being admitted to Soto del Real prison at five o'clock this Monday afternoon.

The former Socialist organization secretary has appeared before the high court to testify in what until a few days ago was either the Koldo case or the Ábalos case. Investigated for organized crime, bribery, and influence peddling, he is already being targeted as the prime suspect. In an interrogation lasting approximately an hour and a half, during which he only answered questions from his lawyer, former CUP deputy Benet Salellas, Cerdán denounced the case as the result of "political persecution," according to legal sources present at the deposition. "A government like Sánchez's, which has made great progress, annoys these powers, and drags us through the mud," he stated.

Until there is more direct evidence against him, the defense strategy is to denounce a kind of political witch hunt for his role in the last two terms. Cerdán stated that he is the right person to be the PSOE's interlocutor with EH Bildu and the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) and predicted that the justice system's "next target" will be the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, for negotiating with Esquerra (Republican Left). Responding to his lawyer, Cerdán also explained his role in the negotiation and announcement of an agreement with Junts for the amnesty law in November 2023 to make Sánchez's investiture possible during the current term.

Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Alejandro Luzón countered that Cerdán's explanations are "poor and biased" and criticized the "victim-based" narrative as an "offensive insinuation" for the Public Prosecutor's Office. "I am one of the architects of achieving progressive governments in Spain. We have been attacked especially since 2023, and that's why I'm here," the former number 3 of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) had said. Cerdán's defense team expresses surprise that Judge Leopoldo Puente rejected the search of the politician's home and, instead, now considers there to be a high risk of evidence being tampered with. They believe that imprisonment without bail has no basis or justification and points to other reasons. One hypothesis is that the goal is to get Cerdán to incriminate more people, which they rule out, and another that they are trying to deepen the wounds of the Spanish government, which would be consistent with their accusations in their defense strategy.

Sources from the Moncloa (Ministry of Justice), however, distance themselves from Cerdán's account in light of the "obvious" evidence of the plot. Therefore, they assert, action was taken "from the very beginning" with force. This position was also defended this Monday by Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, when it was announced that Cerdán had been imprisoned, following the UN summit on development financing taking place this week in Seville. "Responsibilities have been assumed, Santos Cerdán has been removed, and it is time for justice, which must determine responsibility," Sánchez stated.

He questions the audio recordings.

In his statement, Cerdán categorically denied his involvement in the network of alleged illegal commissions derived from public contracts. He emphasized that neither he nor the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) have taken any money. The main incriminating evidence is the audio recordings that the Civil Guard found on Koldo García's cell phones, and Cerdán is considering requesting expert evidence to prove their authenticity.

Responding to questions from his lawyer, he said that the transcripts of those conversations are not complete, but rather fragments, and that what the Civil Guard claims in its report based on these recordings is "completely untrue." Cerdán sought to put some of the suspicious projects into context, such as that of a bridge in Seville and the Burying train tracks underground in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, and has indicated that he simply worried about this during the pre-election campaign for the municipal elections in May 2019 so he could claim them for the elections. Not for financial gain, he insisted.

The UCO also attributes to him a 45% stake in one of the companies mentioned, Servinabar, owned by a friend of his, Joseba Antxón, based on a private contract according to which Cerdán acquired them for 6,000 euros. The former number 3 of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) asserted that this contract was not formally signed and that he did not pay the money. When he considered making the leap into business in 2016, his wife convinced him to continue in politics, he explained. And he said that he then ordered Antxón Alonso to terminate the agreement.