The Investigating Court 4 of Badalona (Barcelona) has sent the former mayor and PP candidate in the municipal elections, Xavier García Albiol, to trial for allegedly allowing the irregular installation of telephone antennas at the Urban Police station.
As stated in the order, advanced by the EFE agency, the examining magistrate considers that there are sufficient indications that the former mayor tolerated the antennas being mounted and operating, despite their irregular installation, between 2012 and 2018, which that could be constitutive of continued urban and environmental prevarication.
The Prosecutor's Office requests for Albiol a total of two years and 10 months in jail for these events, as well as another 10 years of disqualification, according to his indictment from the public prosecutor.
With the statutes of the PP in hand,
The decision to open a trial implies the opening of a disciplinary file that can lead to suspension of militancy, although sources in Genoa rule out taking measures because "it is not corruption", although prevarication is a crime of corruption.
"Two antennas on a farm without a license, due to the fact that they do not know if there is a license or not, it is not corruption," these sources affirm.
The PP statutes say that "in cases in which a member incurs in any form of corruption in the exercise of public office", the party will open a file, which will become disciplinary "at the time it occurs the appointment of the oral trial of the corresponding legal proceeding.”
This is the case of Albiol, but the national PP decides not to take action on the grounds that "he is not a national leader" ―although he is part of Feijóo's campaign committee for May 28― and that the case that affects him "does not it's corruption."
Sources from Feijóo's management have also referred to the Catalan PP for decisions on Albiol, while in the Catalan PP they counter that "these decisions correspond to Genoa."
The order indicates that the devices began to operate "without having the enabling administrative title of any kind for the installation of the antenna or for the development of the activity, nor for the occupation and exploitation of the public domain."
The antennas were in operation from 2012 to 2018, when the telephone companies voluntarily withdrew them, without having the required permits for the time they were operating, in a space in which, due to its nature, installation "was not possible", according to the car.
As for Albiol, the judge maintains that although the former mayor was aware of the irregular installation of these antennas in the face of complaints from a union of the Urban Guard, with which he even held meetings, he did not carry out any management of information and withdrawal of these devices. despite repeated requests.
Albiol has publicly cast doubt on the actions of the Prosecutor's Office.
“It is no coincidence that this accusation comes out two months before the elections, at a time when our expectations in Badalona are good.
Nothing that is happening is due to chance," he wrote on his Twitter account, where he broadcasts almost daily the meetings he has with neighbors and entities and where he criticizes the government action of the current mayor Rubén Guijarro and the rest of the groups that they support you.
The court emphasizes that Albiol, in addition to being mayor at the time of the facts, held the power to grant building and environmental licenses, the initiation and resolution of urban discipline files and resolutions of sanctioning files for infringement of the regulations. environmental.
"There is no record that the aforementioned mayor, in relation to the facts investigated, formally exercised any of the aforementioned powers, that is, ex ante, with the granting of any license or ex post, with the initiation of any urban or environmental discipline file." , pick up the car.
In addition to Albiol, the investigating court has ordered the opening of an oral trial for five other people, including the former citizen security councilor during Albiol's first term and PP candidate for mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona), Miguel Jurado;
and the first deputy mayor during the term of Dolors Sabater, Oriol Lladó (ERC).
Albiol is currently a PP candidate for Badalona City Council and is part of Alberto Núñez Feijóo's team to lead the municipal and regional campaign in May in Spain.
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