The former mayor of Boadilla tries to demonstrate that he has collaborated in the Gürtel trial

The former mayor of Boadilla del Monte, Arturo González Panero, arrived at the National Court with his lawyer, Gustavo Galán, on November 17. FERNANDO VILLAR (EFE)

The third great trial of the PP for the

faces its final stretch with Arturo González Panero, former mayor of Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), as the main protagonist. The former councilor's lawyer has focused a large part of his efforts this Wednesday on trying to show that the former politician has collaborated with the justice system to shed light on the landing of the corrupt plot in the City Council that he headed. "He expressly recognized the irregularities," insisted his lawyer, Gustavo Galán, when presenting his conclusions. The defense, which seeks that the court reduce a possible sentence, thus responds to the Prosecutor's Office, which last week unmitigatedly charged Panero, considering that he had not confessed until he was cornered by the evidence.

On November 2, 2021, more than 12 years after starting the investigations focused on the corrupt network led by Francisco Correa and when there were only a few days left before the start of the trial on Gürtel's businesses in Boadilla, the former mayor presented a brief where he admitted his involvement. The former councilor detailed his long and close relationship with the brain of the plot; He told how they rigged public contracts, distributed bribes and diverted black money to electoral campaigns of the PP; and affirmed that the then national and regional leadership of the party were aware of the irregularities. A story that he later ratified during his statement at the hearing. But for the Prosecutor's Office it was not only too late, but it also accuses him of "hiding" and "misrepresenting" some facts to attribute them to others.

"This defense cannot share the thesis of the Prosecutor's Office," Panero's lawyer, also known under the alias of

, said on Wednesday . As he has repeated, his client began to collaborate almost two years before presenting his confession brief at the National Court: in January 2020, when he hired him as a lawyer, who has represented other defendants in Gürtel who maintain a line of cooperation with justice —among them, Isabel Jordán, a former employee of Correa—. "[The alderman] has recognized the favorable treatment given to Correa, the criminal collaboration he had with him until 2005, the existence of a video where Panero would be counting money...", he listed, before recovering a phrase that Correa himself The former mayor said at the trial: “I am not passing the buck at all.”

But none of that convinced the prosecution. Last week, the public ministry announced that it maintained the request that Panero be sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was the only one of the 17 confessed defendants who did not lower his sentence request. According to Anticorruption argued, the former PP councilor "could no longer deny the obvious": "But he has not collaborated in anything [...] There is no reparative effort, there is no confession and he does not receive mitigation [of the sentence]" . In a similar vein, the State Attorney's Office spoke on Tuesday: “It has not returned the amounts received [irregularly]. He has been enjoying them these years. And he enjoys them today or he has spent them”.

This Wednesday's session ended shortly before 2:00 p.m.

The hearing will resume this Thursday with the final conclusions of more defenses, including that of the PP, who is accused of participating for profit and whom the Prosecutor's Office asks to sentence to the payment of more than 200,000 euros.

Once this part is concluded, the 24 defendants will be able to exercise their right to the last word and the trial will then be seen for sentencing.