Seen for sentencing the trial for embezzlement of a former socialist president of the Diputación de Valencia

With the "last words" of several of the 14 defendants, including the former president of the Valencia Provincial Council and current mayor of Ontinyent, the former socialist leader Jorge Rodríguez, the trial for the

ended this Wednesday after almost two and a half months sessions —and four years of investigation— and without the parties having moved their positions.

Now it is in the hands of the Provincial Court of Valencia to decide on the legality or not, and in this case the prevarication or embezzlement that would imply, of nine contracts to senior managers that were carried out in Divalterra, a public company of the Diputación, when entering The PSPV and Compromís govern it, parties of which those hired were militants or related, according to the accusations.

A hypothetical acquittal could relaunch the career of Rodríguez, who when the case broke out and he was arrested was among the candidates to succeed the current president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, as head of the PSPV.

Indicted and unable to stand for re-election with the Socialists, Rodríguez was elected by an absolute majority to continue at the helm of the Ontinyent mayor's office with a new party.

Throughout the process, and also in their conclusions a few days ago, the Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecutions have defended that the contracts were "outside the law", that they were not necessary and that they represented a "breakdown for public coffers". of 1.1 million euros.

"The only qualification of merit or capacity [of those hired] was their affinity for a certain political party," said prosecutor Pablo Ponce, who insisted that Divalterra, the former Imelsa and epicenter as such of

has always been "a beach bar”.

Anticorruption has maintained its request for a penalty, which in the case of Rodríguez and four other defendants is eight years in prison and 20 of absolute disqualification.

In his statement during the trial, a command of the UDEF (the economic crime unit of the National Police) explained that both Rodríguez and the different managers of Divalterra were aware of reports that warned of the possible illegality of the contracts, and stressed that they had not They were taken to the board of directors to avoid their control.

In addition, one of the complainants, José Luis Pellicer, who was responsible for the legal department of the public company and secretary of its board, asserted that the then co-manager Agustina Brines (Compromís) informed him that "Rodríguez had instructions to hire seven people” and remarked that he already had “the names and surnames”.

Ignorance of illegality

None of the defendants has assumed responsibility for carrying out these contracts: either they have defended that they were legal or that there were no reports proving their illegality.

They assure that they only had access to them when the case broke out.

In fact, they have affirmed that they had the approval of the then legal adviser of Divalterra, José Luis Vera.

In his appearance as a witness, Vera assured, on the contrary, that he verbally warned of the illegality, although he could not explain why in a 2016 report he did not express it that way and admitted that the contracted workers would continue until their labor regime was determined.

“I don't know, I'd be crazy that day,” he said in response.

Jorge Rodríguez defended his action with the argument that he could have appointed a dozen more advisers if he had wanted to plug someone in, and estimated the savings that this meant for the Provincial Council at 1.2 million euros.

Both Rodríguez and other defendants have taken advantage of the last word on Wednesday to show their confidence in justice, but there has also been criticism of the process.

“This will not cure anyone anymore”, the former manager Agustina Brines has affirmed, very affected.

From Alqueria to Azud, Taula or Erial

Manuel Mata,

Ombudsman [Ombudsman of the Valencian Community] and lawyer for one of the defendants, has argued that the

has been mounted "on something that does not exist", has defended the legitimacy that Divalterra had as part of the Diputación to appoint senior managers and "do politics" and stressed that these were "freely appointed" positions for which you could choose whoever you deemed appropriate.

That this case should not have been prosecuted through criminal proceedings, but in any case through contentious-administrative proceedings, has been another of the arguments most used by him and by other defenses.

But Mata has gone further and has pointed to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, specifically prosecutor Pablo Ponce, as a "muñidora" of some of the most notorious investigations into corruption in recent years.

“It gives the feeling that the Valencian Community, between 2015 and 2019, has been an experiment by a prosecutor.

He has passed in Taula, in Azud and in Erial.

In one case they are anonymous complaints, in another the little papers from the Syrian, and here we do not know what the complainants were enlightened to present this complaint", he reproached, after slipping that it could be "a setup" in which Vera would have participated .