Francisco Martínez, former Secretary of State for Security, in November 2020 with the National Court. Eduardo Parra (Europa Press)
Podemos, represented as a popular accusation in the
Kitchen case
, has asked the National Court that the WhatsApp chats seized on Francisco Martínez, Secretary of State for Security with Mariano Rajoy, be incorporated into the future trial to be held on the parapolice espionage operation to Luis Bárcenas, ex-treasurer of the PP, concocted during the period of Jorge Fernández Díaz as Minister of the Interior.
In these telephone conversations, revealed by EL PAÍS, the former high-ranking official of the Rajoy government talks with members of the then leadership of the National Police about the maneuvers against the former head of finance for the conservative party, or even against Podemos and pro-independence leaders. .
Judge Manuel García-Castellón, who has investigated the
Kitchen case
, initially allowed all parties to access the integrity of these chats, incorporated into the summary.
But, on March 3, the magistrate agreed to suspend this measure temporarily, pending resolution of Martínez's request to expel part of said conversations from the case.
According to the former Secretary of State, the intercepted files include "private, intimate and reserved messages, among which allusion would be made to health, religious confession, economic status, etc."
of him and of third parties, to whom "serious damages" are being caused.
The former senior PP official adds that they also contain details of "sensitive" operations covered "by the legislation relating to official secrets" of the State.
More information
Podemos asks for 41 years in prison for the ex-Cupula of the Interior and the Police for spying on Bárcenas
In July 2021, the instructor prosecuted the former Interior and Police leadership for illegal espionage on the former treasurer.
García-Castellón proposed sitting on the bench, among others, the then political head of that portfolio, Jorge Fernández Díaz;
to his former
number two
From him, Francisco Martínez;
six commissioners, such as Eugenio Pino (Police chief during the Rajoy Government) and José Manuel Villarejo;
and Bárcenas' former driver, Sergio Ríos.
The Criminal Chamber of the National Court confirmed this initiative in May 2022, which is currently pending the issuance of the order to open the oral trial.
Podemos, which requests 41 years in prison for the leaders of the Interior and the Police in the stage of Mariano Rajoy as head of the Executive, also requests that the former president of the Government himself testify in the trial, as well as his vice president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and the ministers José Ignacio Zoido and María Dolores de Cospedal —the latter was charged in the case, but her prosecution was ruled out due to lack of evidence, contrary to the criteria of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.
A proposal that comes while the PSOE partners pressure the Socialists to quote Rajoy in the new commission of investigation on the
sewers
of the Interior that has been launched in Congress.
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