Cospedal faces a new accusation for having allegedly persecuted Bárcenas’ lawyer

The former general secretary of the PP María Dolores de Cospedal He goes again to the National Court this Tuesday to testify in the macro-case related to the commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejonamed as Tandem. The previous time she did it as a defendant, on June 29, 2021 within the framework of the operation Kitchen that he stole from the former treasurer of the PP Luis Barcenas documentation on Box B of the party. Later, the judge Manuel García Castellón He left her on the sidelines, filed her case and has been left out of the trial. This time she does so as a witness for similar events, now focused on the persecution of Javier Gómez de Liaño, who was the former treasurer’s lawyer. Sources from the investigation predict that the former minister may emerge from her appearance as under investigation, although other legal voices highly doubt that García Castellón will agree to her accusation.

In her previous appointment with the judge, Cospedal denied that Villarejo shared sensitive information with her. They knew each other, yes, but little more. The commissioner has stated repeatedly – most recently yesterday – that his relationship with the former secretary of the PP was much closer. He explained this Monday as a witness that he was with her at least “14 or 15 times” and that he reported details of “intelligence.” The objective, as he explained, was to know everything related to Gómez de Liaño andThe then director of El Mundo Pedro J. Ramírez who was publishing information about the ‘Bárcenas Papers’.

This kind of Kitchen-bis It is piece number 36 of the macrocause and tries to clarify whether the parapolice operation that spied on and persecuted Bárcenas to cover up the plot Belt He did the same with his lawyer. To do so, they allegedly took advantage of his connection with the Russian mafia boss. Zakhar Kalashovwhom he defended on the same dates as the former treasurer between 2013 and 2014.

They attributed to Gómez de Liaño the collection of 4 million euros in black this way; They investigated the invoice of 30,000 euros with which Luis Bárcenas’ sister-in-law paid the lawyer’s fee; They looked to see if there was money laundering and even, according to the lawyer himself, two agents from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) showed up at the office secretary’s gym to try to get information from her.

In the investigation it also appears a State Lawyer close to Cospedal who, supposedly, acted as lobby to try to shake everything that surrounded the former treasurer and act as a retaining wall so that nothing splashed against the PP. The lawyer, who is a victim in this procedure, considers that the former minister was able to organize this entire operation to discredit him and in her fight to clarify what happened she reached the Criminal Chamber of the National Court when the judge refused to call her to testify as a witness.

For this reason, and despite the fact that Villarejo said this Monday that she “was aware of everything”, the legal sources consulted doubt that Cospedal will end up being investigated in this procedure. This ramification has been driven by both the affected person and the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office that he appealed the file of the case that García Castellón agreed to “early”according to the Court.

Those who do appear as investigated so far are four other lawyers: José Aliste, Óscar Jiménez de la Rubia, José Luis Moreno Cela and Mónica Gil Manzano. The first two also testified this Monday. Aliste explained that he acted as an intermediary between Kalashov and Gómez de Liaño to support his defense, but that at no time did he pass information of any kind to Villarejo. Jiménez de la Rubia claimed that he practically did not know who any of them were.

The germ of the cause

This piece 36 was initiated as a result of an investigation in which Halit Sahijtaj, belonging to the entourage of the Russian mafia boss Zahari Kalashov, is involved. A Marbella court searched his house last year in the context of another case and there found a recording in which three individuals talk about a plan to obtain compromising information from the lawyer.

The investigative court number 2 of Marbella sent the audio to the National Court and the Police located whose voices they were. At this time, a second Kitchen in which the Prosecutor’s Office has taken the opportunity to try to close some issues that were left pending from the first.