The former President of the Government and former leader of the PP, José María Aznar, in an act on April 20.Diego Radamés (Europa Press)
The latest attempt to reactivate the investigation into the alleged donations made by businessmen to the PP box b in exchange for public concessions, reflected in
the Bárcenas papers
and which kept 23 contracts for almost 600 million euros awarded by the governments of José María Aznar (PP), has been shipwrecked.
The National Court has rejected the appeal presented by one of the popular accusations, Observatori de Drets Humans (DESC), to which Izquierda Unida (IU) also joined, to continue with the investigations after the investigating judge Santiago Pedraz archived them last December for lack of evidence.
The court had previously rejected the PSOE's allegations.
This line of investigation —a derivative of the
Gürtel case
, about the corruption of the party currently led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo—was the last one that remained alive in the investigation phase related to the papers of the popular ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas, which EL PAÍS revealed in 2013. The investigations tried to prove that there was a direct relationship between the amounts of black money that entered the box b of the PP, supposedly delivered by businessmen, and specific works that were awarded to them (which would allow proving a crime of bribery).
However, after almost a decade of investigations, Judge Pedraz concluded last December that he did not have sufficient "indications of criminality" to sit someone on the bench for the facts, and that the case was also exhausted and without the possibility of fructify.
More information
Bribery in the Aznar governments: an investigation thread that never came to fruition due to lack of evidence
This instructor position is supported by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
And also with the support of the Criminal Chamber, which first rejected the appeal of the PSOE and later that of the Observatori DESC.
Regarding the latter, the court reproaches the popular prosecution for its "effort to keep the case open", as stated in a resolution issued on February 14, to which EL PAÍS has had access.
In the opinion of the Chamber, the annotations of
the Bárcenas papers
"They were already taken into account in their day in case they could prove irregular financing" [of the PP] —as the judgments of the National Court and the Supreme Court have taken for granted—, but they are not enough to continue with other "criminal crimes ”.
In other words, more evidence that is sufficiently consistent is required, which has not been achieved, as the magistrates reiterate: "They do not have the required strength for the purposes of continuing the procedure."
The resolution affirms that the information in the summary "lacks the essential incriminating force to formalize the criminal claim."
"Facts that involve illegal conduct are not specified or specified, detailing these and identifying their potential perpetrators," insisted the court in reference to the appeal of Observatori Desc.
The Criminal Chamber of the Court thus supports, once again, the conclusions of Judge Pedraz, who attached enormous importance to a report dated November 4, 2022 from the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE), dependent on the Treasury , which ruled out irregularities in the concession of the specific works analyzed.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber