The PP tries to spread the socialist stain in the 'Azud case' involving a senator who is not charged

The PP has taken a step forward in its attempts to extract political profit from corruption in a case in which it is the main implicated, despite the fact that it also splashes the PSOE.

The PP spokesman in the Senate, Javier Maroto, has asked the president of the Upper House, Ander Gil, to request the socialist senator José Asensi to modify his declaration of assets and activities in view of "the suspicion" that he could have hidden income and/or benefits through a company.

The firm is one of those investigated in the

which investigates the commissions paid by Valencian businessmen to political leaders with the Valencia City Council, at the time Rita Barberá (PP) governed, as the main focus.

However, Maroto, in his petition, reconverts the main cause of the case, which is the corruption of the PP, in the case of "the alleged illegal financing of the PSOE of the Valencian Community", when not even the judge has included that crime among the investigated nor the socialist senator José Asensi is part of the list of more than fifty defendants in which, above all, businessmen appear.

The PP reduces the case to the involvement of Valencian socialists in the alleged diversion of invoices for electoral expenses in 2007 and 2008, pointed out by the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard (UCO) in one of the seven separate pieces of the case.

The former manager of the Valencian Socialists himself admitted before the judge that a construction company financed these electoral expenses, but this act was not criminal in 2007 and, therefore, cannot be prosecuted.

The fact, in any case, is that Azud does have two socialists involved, the former sub-delegate of the Government, Rafael Rubio, and the former head of Finance for the Valencian socialists, Pepe Cataluña, although neither of them is already a member of the PSOE.

In the case of Rubio for allegedly charging for keeping silent about the operations investigated when he was leader of the municipal opposition in the Valencia City Council.

Rubio was arrested last May, in the same operation in which the former deputy mayor of Valencia, Alfonso Grau (PP), was arrested.

Two years earlier, but in the same context as the

, José María Corbín, a lawyer and brother-in-law of the former mayor of Valencia Rita Barberá, was arrested.

Javier Maroto argues his request "for the sake of the principles of integrity, transparency, diligence, honesty, responsibility and respect" and after the newspaper

published that, according to the Treasury, a company owned by the senator was used by another businessman , Jaime Febrer, as a shell company.

Maroto demands that his declaration of activities presented in 2019 be reviewed, knowing that Asensi sold the company in 2005.

José Asensi himself, senator for Alicante, denied the information on Tuesday and assured that the allegedly criminal acts that are cited occurred after his participation in this company and sent several documents to verify that he "never" issued "any invoice", nor received "any amount".