Zapatero's spokesperson rules out pre-trial detention

BarcelonaA week before Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's appearance at the National Court, where he will testify as an accused party, the former Spanish president has already begun to deploy his defense through his former advisor at Moncloa, Luis Arroyo, who is acting as his spokesperson. In statements this Tuesday to Catalunya Ràdio, the current president of the Ateneu de Madrid stated that Zapatero sees "political motivations" in his indictment and added that, in his opinion, he does not rule out that Judge José Luis Calama may decide to send him to preventive prison on June 2.

"Monumental error" and "conjecture after conjecture" have been two of the expressions that, as in recent days, Arroyo has used to describe the UDEF reports on which the investigation of the former socialist leader is based. "He [Zapatero] doesn't say lawfare, but [...] he does know that there are political motivations in his indictment," he explained. In this regard, he recalled that the former president has mediated in "very complex cases," whether with Catalan independence or with the Venezuelan opposition. "He negotiated with ETA and was told that he had betrayed the dead," he added, before stating: "He is a major hunting trophy."

In this regard, and when directly asked about this possibility, Arroyo acknowledged that he does not rule out that the judge may order provisional detention for Zapatero after his testimony next week. "This is my opinion, but [...] once the Attorney General is convicted, anything is possible," he said. The spokesperson for the former PSOE leader wanted to compare the case in Calama's hands to that of former prosecutor Álvaro García Ortiz, convicted of disclosure of secrets, although he said nothing about the case that implicates former socialist leaders José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán, which – like Zapatero's – also has to do with the alleged collection of illegal commissions. And does the former president also fear prison? "He believes he can resolve this brutal UDEF error. He is optimistic by definition," Arroyo limited himself to saying.

The spokesperson, who has also been interviewed on RAC1, has reiterated that Zapatero has "the desire to express himself" and to be able to "explain these conjectures" about him. "He is not a cowardly person [...], he does not hide under the table. He stood firm with the 'No to war' and dialogued with ETA until its end," he insisted, while admitting that the former president is worried that so much has been said about his life and that of his daughters, as well as his office. "It is not comfortable at all," he said. Furthermore, he defended the legality of the former president's "activities" and also the role of his daughters, of whom he said they "worked" with their father in the preparation of reports and international trips, among other things.

Finally, Arroyo did not fail to criticize the fact that photographs of the jewels found in Zapatero's office, which he reiterated correspond to family inheritances from Zapatero's mothers and his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa, and from "gifts". Regarding these objects, he justified that they were found in a safe in the former president's office because he and his family have temporarily moved to a rental apartment while they are building a house on a purchased plot of land. An acquisition, he said, that would explain the rapid cancellation of a mortgage that the UDEF has put under the spotlight. "It is not said that the cancellation comes because the house was sold," he concluded.