Eduardo Zaplana attends the Valencia courthouse (presentation office) to sign in 2019.Mònica Torres
The former president of the Generalitat and former Minister of Labor with the PP, Eduardo Zaplana, has asked the judge in the Erial case to unblock his insurance policies to cover the medical expenses derived from his disease -leukemia- and pneumonia as a result of having suffered from covid-19.
In total, it has submitted invoices for an amount of 9,060 euros, all corresponding to 2021.
The letter sent by the Zaplana lawyer to the Examining Court number 8 of València in charge of the Erial case, in which the alleged payment of the commissions received for the ITV service awards and the Valencian Wind Power Plan is investigated. The former minister was arrested and charged in 2018 for the alleged commission of the crimes of money laundering and bribery in the operation known as the Erial case. In total, according to data from the investigation and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Zaplana hid 20 million from bribes abroad. Zaplana denies all the allegations.
After opening the procedure and the arrest, the court ordered the blocking of accounts and products of any kind opened in the name of Zaplana, either as the owner or as authorized.
At that time, Zaplana had a policy, whose policyholder was Telefónica -company of which it was part-, open since December 2015.
The investigated received annually amounts of money that were not contributed to the Pension Plan for exceeding the maximum that had tax relief.
In addition, he had a mixed-executive group policy with dental reimbursement.
From these policies medical expenses were reimbursed.
In any case, it was not - as Zaplana alleges in his writing - a matter of deposited funds, but an insurance contract in which the policyholder and who paid the premium was the employer and not the worker.
Thus, the person under investigation did not "at any time" make a contribution to the insurance companies, but rather these were made by Telefónica within the framework of the social security plans of its employees.
After blocking these funds, Zaplana continues to have to receive “frequent” medical treatment for the myelodysplastic syndrome that he suffers, with subsequent evolution to leukemia and Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease.
"It requires frequent medical attention, special care and frequent outpatient hospital care," he says.
Likewise, he points out, he has recently suffered from mild pneumonia as a result of covid-19.
Both diseases, says his lawyer, have meant for Zaplana a "significant outlay" in medical consultations, analysis and detection tests for covid, whose bills contributed to the procedure amount to 9,060 euros.
To these medical expenses of Zaplana are added others such as the payment of the Tax on Mechanical Traction Vehicles and the Tax on Real Estate of his home, the total amount of which amounts to 3,214.33 euros.
Given that the Hearing, in a resolution, alluded to the possible unlocking of funds to meet "certain contractual obligations to avoid irreparable damage," they request the unlocking of funds to meet tax obligations and advance payment of benefits derived from Telefónica insurance .
Now the court will have to rule.
