Villarejo's main collaborator leaves him alone in the final phase of the trial: "He was the supreme and all-powerful boss"

Rafael Redondo, Villarejo's main collaborator, at the National Court on February 28. Jesus Hellin 2022 (Europa Press)

The first major trial of retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, who faces a request from the Prosecutor's Office for more than 80 years in prison for leading a macro-plot of corruption, has resumed this Monday entering its final phase.

The defense of Rafael Redondo, the main collaborator of the former National Police official, opened the session and took the opportunity to discharge all responsibility on the main suspect.

“My representative followed the instructions that Villarejo gave him at all times.

Villarejo was the supreme boss, he was the all-powerful boss.

He exercised strict and absolute control ”, Redondo's lawyer insisted when exposing his conclusions.

The lawyer of the great collaborator of the retired commissioner, who leaves him alone when the trial faces its final stretch, has pronounced with enormous forcefulness: "My representative has had to endure and continues to bear the sanbenito that he is Villarejo's partner.

Redondo is a lawyer and was hired by Villarejo to provide legal services in his companies ", he has minimized his defense:" he followed the instructions that Villarejo gave him at all times.

[...] Redondo is nobody's henchman”.

“The real role that my client had was to be an employee of Villarejo, managed and mediated by Villarejo”, he has argued.

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However, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office grants Redondo a key role in the plot.

The public ministry has stressed that this lawyer by profession was not a simple subordinate.

He was his trusted man: he attended meetings with clients with Villarejo — like the policeman, he recorded them on occasion — he prepared invoices, appeared as proxy in bank accounts and was a partner in the companies in the commissioner's corporate network. .

The accusation places Redondo at the highest level in his writings: "[Together] with Villarejo and Gemma Alcalá [the policewoman], he channeled their criminal activities."

The Internal Affairs Unit (UAI) of the Police, the Prosecutor's Office and the investigating judge Manuel García-Castellón maintain that Villarejo created a plot to sell espionage services to individuals and companies, for which he accessed confidential databases of the Administration in exchange for millions of dollars.

"Redondo set the strategy to be followed by its clients based on the illicitly obtained reserved data," says Anti-Corruption about the collaborator.

This first major trial of the commissioner focuses on three alleged irregular projects: Iron, which deals with the hiring of the commissioner by the Herrero & Asociados law firm to allegedly spy on another rival law firm (Balder);

Land, which focuses on the family war between the heirs of Luis García-Cereceda, the promoter who built the luxury urbanization La Finca in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), and Pintor, which deals with how businessman Juan Muñoz Tamara, husband of the presenter Ana Rosa Quintana, signed Villarejo to illegally obtain data from a former partner from whom they demanded the payment of a debt.

“Laugh thanks to the boss”

Redondo's lawyer, who this Monday has also denounced irregularities in the judicial investigation, has minimized the role of his client.

"My representative recorded on very few occasions and at the express request of Villarejo", he has exposed.

“My client acted as archivist for the Villarejo companies.

In his office there were many files because it was one of the obligations that he had entrusted to him.

He cannot be blamed for the fact that in his office there were files of the operations carried out by Villarejo”, he continued.

"The heritage of my representative is modest, distant from that of Villarejo."

“Indeed, Redondo has shares in the Villarejo companies.

Exactly 0.016%.

If that is being a member of Villarejo, then God come and see it”, continued the lawyer: “Redondo is guilty of having accompanied Villarejo to certain meetings, but he did not accompany him with a specific or relevant mission.

He accompanied him with a bundle, with candle holders, to laugh at the thanks of his boss”.

"It is not acceptable to maintain an accusation in the form of an oil stain", he has reproached the Prosecutor's Office, which he has accused of wanting to "bring down Villarejo and those around him" regardless of "what they have done" .

“They are guilty for the mere fact of being close to Villarejo.

This procedure is to bring down a large elephant and to do so,

This oral hearing has entered its final phase in September, with the presentation of the conclusions of all the parties.

After making the accusations at the beginning of the month, this Tuesday the turn of the defenses has begun.

Once they are finished, the defendants will be able to exercise their right to the last word.

Later, the trial will be seen for sentencing almost a year after starting.

We can appeal the judge's refusal to charge Cospedal

Podemos, appeared as a popular accusation in the

, has filed an appeal this Monday against the refusal of Judge Manuel García-Castellón to re-indict María Dolores de Cospedal, former Secretary General of the PP and former Minister of Defense, for Operation Kitchen.

The party has requested to resume the investigation on the police plot set up in the Ministry of the Interior against former popular treasurer Luis Bárcenas to allegedly steal compromising documentation for high-ranking officials of the conservative formation.

According to Podemos, which asks to reopen the investigations as a result of the revelations contained in the Villarejo audios published by this newspaper in recent months, these recordings "come to prove the participation of relevant members of the PP leadership, and specifically Cospedal , in the direction and execution of Operation Kitchen".

At the same time, Judge García-Castellón has rejected the appearance of Sandro Rosell, former president of Barça, as a victim in the case, as he did not see evidence of an alleged connection between the commissioner's network and the judicial process to which he was subjected, and for which he spent more than two years in preventive detention before being acquitted.