The judge of the 'Neurona case' acknowledges that he "improperly" included Pablo Iglesias as investigated and corrects the error

MADRID, 21 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge in charge of the so-called 'Neurona case' has acknowledged having "improperly included" the name of the former leader of Podemos and former vice president of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, among those investigated in the procedure in which the contract of 363,000 euros that Podemos is investigated signed with Neurona for the campaign for the general elections of April 2019.

In an order, to which Europa Press has had access, Judge Juan José Escalonilla has specified that Iglesias is not a party to the procedure and that it was included "improperly in the heading of the resolutions", for which he has ordered "correct" the error at the request of the defense of the former communication secretary of the party investigated in this case, Juan Manuel del Olmo.

The error in question was that in several resolutions related to the 'Neurona case' issued from the court directed by Escalonilla, the name of Iglesias was listed at the top, where all those investigated and their respective attorneys appear. The former leader of Podemos began to appear on said list without having been formally charged in the procedure.

Although in the framework of the 'Neurona case' a separate piece was opened for the alleged collection by Iglesias of the procedural costs in cases where it was the party that paid lawyers and solicitors, the former leader of Podemos was not accused and finally the judge in charge of the investigations - the one of the Court of Instruction Number 45 of Madrid - agreed to the archive of the investigation considering that there were no criminal indications.

For its part, in the main piece -relating to the contract of 363,000 euros signed between the party and the consultancy that gives its name to the procedure- Podemos has appeared as being investigated as a legal person, as well as several formation charges, but Iglesias has not been one of them.

On the sidelines, in the letter of February 9, the head of the Investigating Court Number 42 of Madrid has also ruled on the request that the popular accusation that Vox exercises made on January 23 to extend the period of investigation.

The judge recalled that in July of last year he issued an order in which he agreed that the investigation would not be extended, for which reason he considered the request of those from Santiago Abascal to be inadmissible. On that occasion, Escalonilla refused to extend the term because he concluded that there were no more procedures to carry out.

At the moment, the expert report that the judge commissioned more than a year ago on the costs of the services provided by Neurona to Podemos is the only proceeding that remains pending in the investigation.

It is expected that once said report is provided to the procedure, the head of the Court decides whether to file or, in view of new evidence contained in said document, to resume the investigation.