This Tuesday, Juan Ignacio Díaz Bidart, who was the chief of staff for the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, also testified. He revealed – for the first time – that Víctor de Aldama was at the Ministry of Industry: "He came to a meeting of a music promoter, with other people, to request a subsidy from the ministry for a musical event during the pandemic," he recounted. He did not know him, but later, upon reviewing the documentation, he learned he was there. "It is not recorded in the proceedings and we had no idea," admitted Leticia de la Hoz, when it was her turn to ask questions. And it was then that the witness completely dissociated this meeting from the facts being judged: "It has nothing to do with it. It was a meeting that the minister arranged with another person who attended," he stated.
This is how Víctor de Aldama moved like a fish in water through the "noble floor" of the Ministry of Transport
"He entered without asking anyone's permission," the testimonies relate
MadridVíctor de Aldama is sitting on the defendant's bench in the first trial of the Koldo case, along with José Luis Ábalos, who was Minister of Transport, and Koldo García, who was his advisor. He is the alleged facilitator of the mask scheme and faces much lower prison sentences – the Prosecutor's Office is asking for seven years in prison, a third of the request made for the former number three of the PSOE– because he has actively collaborated with justice since the start of the case. In the last two sessions, it has become clear that Aldama had the ability to move around the Ministry of Transport headquarters, in the Nuevos Ministerios complex, as if he were one of them. A circumstance that surprised some of the witnesses who have paraded through the Supreme Court.
"He is the only case I know of that, without belonging to the ministry, had access to it," stated José Luis Rodríguez, a lieutenant colonel in the Civil Guard at Nuevos Ministerios, last week. "It struck me that a person who did not belong to the ministry was there several times. Being an outsider to the ministry, I had the impression that he was there more often than he should have been," Isabel Pardo de Vera, who was president of Adif, had admitted a little earlier. And this Tuesday, Ana María Aranda, who was Ábalos' personal secretary at the ministry, has corroborated this account: "He accessed through the high-ranking officials' courtyard that the minister used," she assured. In the afternoon, it was the turn of Javier Hidalgo, former CEO of Globalia, who extended Aldama's reach to the rescue of Air Europa: "He acted as a communication channel with all the ministries, not just with the Ministry of Transport."
Ábalos' personal secretary saw Aldama at the ministry on occasion: "I saw him appear in the minister's offices. Alone or accompanied by Koldo," she recalled. And she mentioned "three official meetings" of Aldama with Ábalos: one with the governor of Oaxaca (Mexico) and two with Javier Hidalgo. The Civil Guard lieutenant colonel explained that Aldama had "permanent access" to the ministry's headquarters: "He entered and left without anyone saying anything to him. He went up without asking anyone's permission." He accessed the "noble zone" after passing "two checkpoints" that were controlled by private security and "parked in the authorities' car park." Sometimes he went with other people and he was a "security guarantee" for his companions.
Isabel Pardo de Vera agreed on Aldama's surprising presence on the third floor of the ministry: "It was the only place I found him, it's inaccessible because it's the minister's," she pointed out. Even, sometimes she saw that Koldo and Aldama were in Ábalos's office, which surprised her. "I was worried because I didn't understand what his role was there. Ábalos answered me that it was not a normal situation and that he was taking note," she concluded.
Divorce between Koldo and Ábalos
At another point in the morning this Tuesday, a divergence of paths became apparent between the defenses of Koldo García and José Luis Ábalos. Ana María Aranda was testifying about the safe-conduct passes she issued to certain individuals during the second state of alarm due to the coronavirus pandemic. The prosecution maintains that the purpose of the mobility certificates was to facilitate fake meetings that served to disguise preferential treatment. "Did Ábalos ask you for any?", asked the ex-minister's lawyer, Marino Turiel. And she denied it. "Who did Mr. Aldama mainly go to see?", he posed. "I always saw him with the advisor", she replied. "Never with the minister?", the lawyer insisted. And the answer was also negative.
These are three questions that have bothered Koldo's defense, which immediately responded during their interrogation. What is at stake is the crime of influence peddling. "Could you receive concrete and direct instructions from Mr. Koldo against the minister's indications?", he asked. "No", she answered. "If the minister had said not to issue the safe-conduct passes, would you not have issued them?", the lawyer reiterated. "Of course", the secretary acknowledged.