Anti-corruption asks the AN judge to extend the 'Popular case' to study documentation from Banco Santander

The prosecutor recalls that "there are several expert opinions that are being carried out by officials of the Bank of Spain"

MADRID, 5 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has asked the judge of the National Court in charge of the investigation of the 'Popular case' to extend the case inquiring into the alleged accounting irregularities of Banco Popular in 2016 and the leaks to the press a year later that would have caused its resolution in mid-2017 to study documentation that must still be provided by Banco Santander.

In a letter last Friday, to which Europa Press has had access, the prosecutor Antonio Romeral explains that "the need to agree" on this extension of the investigation "derives" from the aforementioned documentation that, "despite the constant requests", still has not been contributed to the cause. The current term, which was extended last January, expires on July 29.

"Requirements that do not presuppose resistance, obstacle or lack of concern for the requested entity, but verification of its volume and complexity, which makes it difficult to locate and organize it," adds the Public Ministry.

Legal sources have confirmed to Europa Press that the magistrate has not yet decided after seeking the opinion of Anticorruption, which uses the same arguments put forward last January when he asked the instructor for a six-month extension.

"As we already stated when requesting the first of the extensions, the documentation is of undoubted value for clarifying the facts," recalls the Public Ministry.

And it is that, assures the prosecutor, "only after its study is it possible to determine and specify the necessary steps that may derive from it, whether it is a question of expanding the agreed expert opinions, providing new documents that complement it or obtaining the testimony of persons who have participated in the facts under investigation".

But, in addition, the Prosecutor's Office recalls "that there are several expert opinions that are being carried out by officials of the Bank of Spain." "For its execution, it has been arranged, by the investigating magistrate, that they communicate at all times the information or documentation needs to carry it out, which may motivate the agreement of complementary proceedings," he argues.