The mayor of Maracena questions the opening of the summary of the kidnapping three days before the elections

Berta Linares, socialist mayor of Maracena (Granada, 22,293 inhabitants) and candidate for re-election in the elections next Sunday, has questioned this Friday before the media that the lifting of the secrecy of the case in which her ex-partner is investigated for the kidnapping of a councilor of his government team, which occurred last February, has occurred three days before the next elections on May 28. The councilor, whom the court proposes to investigate as an inducer of illegal retention, has assured that the day of the kidnapping she contacted her then partner because the Civil Guard asked her to. "When everything is clarified and our innocence is proven, who is going to give us back free elections, who is going to return our tarnished image and the damage against our comrades and families? We will not be able to recover it," he said in a brief appearance in which he did not admit questions.

The lifting of secrecy has allowed access to judicial resolutions in which it is indicated that Linares spoke and met with the kidnapper shortly after he illegally held his government partner. In a municipal plenary session held the day after these events, Linares denied having seen Pedro Gómez, his then partner and the only one investigated so far. A court order issued yesterday, May 25, states that surveillance cameras recorded a meeting of about six minutes of the councilor and her then partner between 12.22 and 12.28, next to a game room in the town. At that time, Gómez still did not know that the councilwoman had managed to escape from the place where he had left her tied hands and feet. This Friday, the mayor has stressed that all the contacts she had with him were agreed with the Civil Guard. "I called him at the request of the Civil Guard to end it," he said.

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The mayor has said that her lawyers are analyzing the summary, which the parties can access for just 24 hours. "They have not found a single piece of evidence or indication that incriminates us," he said. Linares has also spoken on behalf of one of his trusted councilors, Antonio García Leyva, and Noel López Linares, former councilor of the municipality and current number three of the Andalusian PSOE. "We are not investigated, nor charged," he stressed.

The order issued yesterday demanded that the High Court of Justice of Andalusia study the indications of the alleged participation of the councilor, the mayor and leader of the Andalusian PSOE in the kidnapping as alleged inductors or for alleged crime of conspiracy. The court of instruction number 5 of Granada makes this request to the superior court because the former mayor of Maracena, Noel López, is currently a regional deputy and is certified, something that forces the judge to refer the proceedings to this court, which must decide whether to investigate him or not.

The investigating judge, who has kept the case secret since 24 February, is holding the alleged kidnapper in pre-trial detention.

Noel López, Berta Linares and Antonio García Leyva are the strong people of the PSOE of Maracena. López, current secretary of organization of the Andalusian PSOE, was mayor of the Granada municipality for more than a decade. Berta Linares replaced him in 2021. García Leyva, who began his political career with López, is a councilor for Urban Planning.

The judge has ordered the analysis of the mobiles of the three from September last year until the end of March: calls and location. Although it has determined that there is no decisive evidence indicating that they could have participated in the organization of the kidnapping, it considers it necessary for the Andalusian court to continue investigating. The kidnapper's account refers to an alleged meeting in which the idea of kidnapping was encouraged.

In the appearance on Friday, Linares has said that everything is based on the "accusation of a person", in reference to his ex-partner, who has a "bipolar disorder". According to Linares, the Civil Guard has shown that this story and the accusations are "false" and, consequently, they are studying to appeal against the judge's decision asking that the role they had be investigated.

Finally, Berta Linares addressed the opposition. "Fewer accusations and falsehoods," he has asked, to claim later that they do not try to "win in the courts" what they are not able to win in the street.

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