Former councilors Mato and Mayer acquitted and the PP condemned for acting "in bad faith" in the 'Tennis Open case'

The Provincial Court of Madrid has acquitted the former councilors Celia Mayer and Carlos Sánchez Mato, who were part of Manuela Carmena's municipal team, and the former head of Madrid Destino Ana Varela of the crimes of prevarication and embezzlement in the so-called

.

The court not only exempts them from criminal responsibility, but also condemns the accusation, which was exercised by the Popular Municipal Group of the Consistory, to pay the costs for acting "recklessly" and "bad faith", for example by maintaining the accusation against Mayer "without any accusatory concreteness" and knowing that when the events occurred she was on leave.

“Thanks to those of you who have supported Celia Mayer, Ana Varela and me.

This time the corrupt have not won", Sánchez Mato wrote on Twitter in a message in which he referred to the "infamous persecution of the PP and Villarejo" against them.

“Thanks to all of you who have supported us.

Justice absolves us and condemns PP costs for bad faith and recklessness ”, Mayer highlighted on the same social network.

The Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, has lamented the years that her collaborators – Mayer and Sánchez Mato have been senior Equality advisors since October – have spent “unjustly criminalized” by the “false scandal created by the PP”.

“The serious thing is that they have been unjustly criminalized for years and no one will repair that damage.

Hopefully his acquittal occupies the same front pages as the false scandal created by the PP”, Montero highlighted.

"I told the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, in the last plenary session between boos from his entire government, but Justice confirms it: they used Justice to do partisan politics and intoxicate," said the spokeswoman for More Madrid at City Hall, Rita Maestre.

The United We Can in the Madrid Assembly, Carolina Alonso, has also celebrated the news:

After an infamous persecution of the PP and Villarejo, the judgment of the Provincial Court ACQUITS us and condemns the PP for RARENESS AND BAD FAITH.

Thanks to those of you who have supported @CeliaMayerD, Ana Varela and me.

This time the corrupt have not won.

We continue ✊ pic.twitter.com/2HK9dnBcuf

– Carlos Sánchez Mato🔻 (@carlossmato) May 18, 2022

It was the PP and the Transparency and Justice association, linked to former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, who sued the three in 2017 for commissioning "by finger" and "without advertising" two law firms to investigate possible irregularities in Open de Tennis during the stage of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón.

"It has not been proven that the defendants, in the exercise of their powers and responsibilities, had any other intention than to protect and safeguard the interests and municipal coffers," says the seventh section of the Court, in a sentence that can be appealed.

In the trial, the Madrid Prosecutor's Office did not see evidence of a crime either and requested acquittal.

The resolution explains the beginning of the case, when Varela, CEO of Madrid Destino, began to suspect the legality of the commitments and obligations that this public company assumed in previous agreements signed for the organization and celebration of the Mutua Madrid Open, some agreements for which the Consistory had to face important financial outlays.

After consulting the City Council's experts and legal advice, she requested various external legal reports, as did Sánchez Mato, as acting president of Madrid Destino and later as the City Council's Delegate for Economy and Finance.

Reports were commissioned from two law firms, worth 50,000 euros, on the contracts signed between the public company and the mercantile Madrid Trophy Promotion.

The payment with municipal money of these reports was the subject of the complaint of the Popular Municipal Group, despite the fact that, according to the Chamber, "it was aware of the lack of consistency of the reported facts from the prevaricatory perspective" Above all, it continues, after being issued three reports by the outsourced legal services, “which are very eloquent of the, at least, striking legal and economic discrepancies derived from the agreements and agreements signed in previous years, and of the entity of the harmful consequences that they could have for the municipal coffers as warned in said legal reports.”

After assessing the legal reports questioned, the three defendants filed a complaint on March 23, 2017 for administrative prevarication and embezzlement before the Prosecutor's Office,

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