An advisor to the Gürtel plot supports the version of Correa and El Bigotes against former President Camps

The trial against the former Valencian president Francisco Camps continues to advance in fits and starts, conditioned by the strike of the officials of the Administration of Justice, which forced to suspend on two occasions. The National Court has managed to hold a new session of the oral hearing on Tuesday – number 18 – after two weeks of break, in which seven witnesses have testified. Among them, César Tomás Martín Morales, alias El Santo, a lawyer and former adviser to the Gürtel plot, who maintained direct contact with the leader of the corrupt network, Francisco Correa. To questions from the prosecutor, Martín Morales has stressed that Correa told him "several times" that he had sent Álvaro Pérez, El Bigotes, to the Valencian Community to take advantage of the "friendship" relationship he had with Camps and thus get awards from the Administration.

The words of Martín Morales reinforce the story of the members of the Gürtel plot accused in this trial, who have agreed with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, but also that of other witnesses who have testified in the same line. Like Alicia Mínguez, a former worker of Correa's companies, who assured that the relationship of El Bigotes with the then regional president was vox populi within the companies: "There was talk and rumor that they were going to Valencia because they would have work there." José Javier Nombela, another employee, backed up that version: "There was talk in the office that he had good relations with people from the Generalitat. Among others, with President Camps." And also the whistleblower of the corrupt network and friend of Correa, José Luis Peñas: "They went for Álvaro Pérez, because of his personal friendship [with Camps]. He knew the president. That's why they decided to make the move. He was a strong baron in the PP."

More information

Niurka Montalvo, the long jump world champion who ended up testifying in Camps' trial

Correa, El Bigotes and Pablo Crespo (number two of the plot and former secretary of Organization of the popular Galicians) assured the court that they decided to land in the Valencian Community as a result of their relations were complicated with the national PP with the arrival of Mariano Rajoy replacing José María Aznar. Also, that Camps was his way of entry into the Generalitat. "Perez told me, that he had a very close relationship with Camps, that there was chemistry," Crespo said.

A thesis that has repeated this Tuesday Martín Morales, sentenced to six years and two months of imprisonment for another line of investigation of the Gürtel case: "I heard Francisco Correa say several times that he sent Álvaro to Valencia because he had friendship with Camps and I think with his wife. And that, as a result, they were going to do business in Valencia. They wanted to expand activities because they were not awarded enough public contracts in Madrid." A friendship that has denied the former Valencian president, who faces a request from the Prosecutor's Office of two and a half years in prison for maneuvering to favor the corrupt network with the award of contracts.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Read more

I'm already a subscriber