Correa points to former president Camps as the gateway for his corrupt Gürtel network in the Valencian Community

Francisco Correa, during his statement this Tuesday in the trial of the 'Gürtel case' on the Valencian branch.

The worst omens for Francisco Camps have come true.

The trial against the former Valencian president for his involvement in the

has entered this Tuesday into the interrogation of the first defendants.

The turn of statements has begun with Francisco Correa, leader of the plot, who has pointed to Camps as the introducer of the corrupt network in the Valencian Community, thanks to the good relationship that the head of the regional government maintained with one of the subordinates of the Gürtel's ringleader, Álvaro Pérez, alias

.

A version that has later ratified

of the plot and former secretary of Organization of the popular in Galicia, Pablo Crespo.

This testimony has acquired such relevance that the former Valencian president has confronted Correa in the lobby of the building.

More information

Camps tries to save his stage in the trial of the 'Gürtel case' despite the high officials already convicted

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor requests a sentence of two and a half years in prison for Camps for crimes of prevarication and fraud.

The public ministry and the investigating judge José de la Mata maintain that the president intervened to rig contracts in favor of Correa's companies, thus granting him awards from the Fitur 2009 tourism fair, "as he had been doing since 2005."

However, the former senior official, who is trying to return to the forefront of politics, denies all the accusations and repeats that they are persecuting him to "destroy" his "job as president of the Generalitat", ignoring all the sentences that have already been passed. considered proven the corruption that nested in the Administration and in the formation that he headed.

—Did you meet Camps at that time?

the prosecutor asked Correa a few minutes after beginning his interrogation.

—I think I met Camps at the famous wedding of the daughter of President José María Aznar.

I have coincided with him two or three times —the leader of the plot has answered.

With those words, the corrupt businessman has given the starting signal to a narrative that always ended in the Palau de la Generalitat, seat of the regional presidency.

“Following the change from Aznar to Mariano Rajoy, we broke relations with Genoa.

And, since Álvaro Pérez had a very good relationship with Camps, I decided to open an office in Valencia”, Correa related.

“Do you remember having spoken with the president?” Anticorruption has insisted then.

"I think so, I told him that he was going to take Álvaro," replied the defendant, who also described how the corrupt plot landed in the Community: "Initially, Álvaro had a relationship with Paco Camps.

From there, Paco Camps introduced him to other members of the PP Government and other members of the Administration”.

“I insisted on Álvaro to talk to Camps, to give him more work.

And I think he did it because he gave him work.

I imagine that the Pope's [an irregular adjudication granted during Benedict XVI's visit to Valencia in June 2006], and the Fitur thing came through Camps”, continued Correa, already sentenced to 105 years and seven months jail for other lines of investigation in the

: "Camps knew that Álvaro was running all the campaigns in Madrid for the PP, and he also told Camps that we had broken relations with Genoa."

Francisco Correa, upon arrival at the trial at the National Court, on January 23. JUAN BARBOSA

The instruction has proven that El Bigotes maintained a fluid and close relationship with the then president of the Generalitat.

In an audio you can hear how Camps affectionately refers to Álvaro Pérez as a "soul friend" and goes so far as to say: "I love you an egg."

During his statement, Correa underlined these links: "I asked Álvaro that we open an office there so that we could work with the party in Valencia to, little by little, introduce ourselves and obtain contracts from the Administration."

“I pressured Álvaro to try to have contracts from the Generalitat.

Álvaro had to contact Paco Camps or the councillors", added the leader of Gürtel, who also highlighted how the plot nested within the conservative formation: "We were an arm of the PP".

Pablo Crespo, who was Correa's

and sentenced to 86 years in prison for other lines of investigation by Gürtel, later confirmed this version to the court: “Álvaro Pérez was related to certain regional leaders.

He knew Camps.

Mr. Pérez told me that he had a very close relationship with Camps, that there was chemistry ”.

Before the trial, both Correa and Crespo and El Bigotes have submitted a confession and have pointed to the former Valencian president.

Ricardo Costa, former general secretary of the Valencian PP, also stated that Camps knew of and participated in the irregularities.

These statements complicate the defense of the ex-leader of the PP.

And he, aware of this, has faced Correa at the end of the session on Tuesday.

"He is a son of a bitch," Camps said as he descended the stairs of the building, according to eyewitnesses.

According to those around the Gürtel leader, the former president addressed him, insulted him —"liar, son of a bitch, you are screwing my life"— and told him that they had never seen each other and that he was not a friend of The Whiskers;

to which the businessman would have responded that a person does not tell someone he does not know that he wants "an egg."

According to Camps's environment, he has simply reproached him for not knowing each other.

The former president of the Valencian Community, Francisco Camps, spoke to the media before the National Court, on Monday. Alejandro Martínez Vélez (Europa Press)

The prosecutor: "There are no obscene pacts"

Prosecutor Concepción Nicolás has not wasted her intervention on Tuesday either and has launched a counterattack against Camps, who on Monday accused Anti-Corruption of persecuting him "fiercely" and of reaching "secret and obscene pacts" with other defendants to get him convicted.

“There are no obscene pacts.

Nothing is illegal or clandestine.

[The agreement of conformity] is a legal instrument and recognized by jurisprudence”, has influenced the representative of the public ministry, who has stressed: “We have done it in a transparent way […].

And, regarding those who make a truthful statement and which is corroborated by all the peripheral elements, the prosecutor will assess whether they are deserving of the mitigating measures”.

The darts have happened non-stop.

“[The conformities] do not bind the court.

And whoever was acquitted of the case of the suits knows it well, despite the fact that there were two conformities”, said Nicolás, referring to the former regional president.

The prosecutor has also denied, as the politician's defense alleged, that the crimes attributed to the popular have prescribed, or that their fundamental rights have been violated in the process, or that they have already been tried and ruled out in another case.

In addition to Camps, another 25 people sit on the bench (two other defendants have already died).

Among them, three advisers to its Executive and a dozen technicians from the Valencian Administration, in addition to the main members of the corrupt plot: Francisco Correa, Pablo Crespo and Álvaro Pérez.

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