The judge of the 'Villarejo case' listens this Thursday to a witness for the alleged espionage to the former consul Vinyals

He is a former lawyer from the legal team of the also former president of the Pro Seleccions Catalanes Platform

MADRID, 13 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court (AN) that investigates the private businesses of José Manuel Villarejo will take a statement this Thursday from a witness as part of the investigations into the alleged espionage that the now retired commissioner would have directed against the former Latvian consul in Barcelona and president of the Pro Catalan Selections Platform, Xavier Vinyals.

Legal sources consulted by Europa Press have confirmed that he is a former member of Vinyals' legal team whom the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office had asked to hear. With his appearance, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, will give a boost to this new line of investigation of the 'Tándem' macro-cause, the last to be opened that refers to an alleged commission.

Vinyals declared as injured on July 6 to confirm that he was spied on by the business group of Villarejo, CENYT, in the so-called 'Goblin project', giving details of that alleged surveillance. That same day, Villarejo's partner, Rafael Redondo, former police officer Antonio Giménez Raso and the alleged client, Daniel Castells, appeared, who accepted their right not to testify.

According to the court account, Castells would have hired Villarejo to find "something" from Ramón Vinyals and/or his son Xavier that would give him a certain advantage when it came to resolving the conflict they had due to a procedure in which the Vinyals accused Castells of misappropriation and for which the Prosecutor's Office asked for prison and a millionaire compensation.

The work would have been carried out through a company linked to Giménez Raso, "a kind of subsidiary of the CENYT Group", the Villarejo company. Castells would have paid 15,000 euros for it.

García Castellón sees indications that Villarejo investigated Vinyals "illicitly", pointing to possible crimes of bribery and discovery and revelation of secrets, which he attributes to Villarejo, Redondo, Giménez Raso and Castells.

It was on May 12 when the investigating judge agreed to open this new piece after coming across the report prepared by CENYT on the 'Goblin project' in a letter written by the Internal Affairs Unit (UAI).

This police unit has already issued several official letters pointing out more than 80 projects that until now were not on García Castellón's radar because they have been located in the framework of the analysis of the enormous documentation seized in the first records of the 'Villarejo case', in 2017 , which is still under review.

The magistrate has commissioned Internal Affairs to determine which of the new identified projects were actually paid for and carried out and which remained a mere offer of services to later decide if 'Tándem' continues to gain weight, already made up of 35 separate pieces.