Esperanza Aguirre, former president of the Community of Madrid, talks in June last year with the mayor of the capital, José Luis Rodríguez Almeida. FERNANDO VILLAR (EFE)
The judge in the
Púnica case
, Manuel García-Castellón, has terminated the investigation into the alleged box b of the PP in Madrid.
According to an order issued this Tuesday, the magistrate considers that all the tests carried out to date “are sufficient” and “the already long-standing period of investigation should not be unduly prolonged.”
The judge thus sets a closing date -January 29, 2022- to these long investigations, which have been going on since 2016. García-Castellón has yet to decide whether to prosecute someone for the irregular financing of the popular: among them, the former regional presidents Esperanza Aguirre and Ignacio González, who remain charged.
"It is considered that the investigation has ended," says the judge, who refuses to extend it for several months, as several parties had requested.
For example, the PSOE, appearing as a popular accusation, requested to extend it for six months considering that there are still inquiries to be made after the Criminal Chamber joined this part of the investigation with the latest revelations of the former mayor of Majadahonda, Guillermo Ortega, sentenced in the
Gurtel case
.
The former councilor, who provided invoices, said that Aguirre placed him in charge of the public company Mercado Puerta de Toledo, from where he diverted more than a million euros to pay expenses for the formation's electoral campaigns.
García-Castellón decided to investigate this part separately, but the Chamber forced him to join it last December, considering that they are related to the "same object" of the investigations.
The judge of the National High Court has considered "exhausted" the instruction on box b of the PP, which is investigated within Piece 9 of the summary of the
Púnica case
.
The public ministry has also informed him that it is preparing its final report on these investigations.
"We consider that the evidence collected during the investigation allows us to carry out, and thus it will be done, a reasoned, motivated and individualized report of all the persons, natural and legal, that are currently investigated in this piece", summarized the three prosecutors of the case - Carmen García Cerdá, Alejandro Cabaleiro and María Teresa Gálvez—in a brief sent to the magistrate at the end of 2021.
Research on box b is therefore now entering a period of waiting.
The parties may appeal the judge's decision to terminate the investigation.
And the magistrate, as stated in this Tuesday's brief, is waiting to issue the order where he decides if he files the case or prosecutes the accused.