The judge sends López Madrid and Villarejo to trial for harassment, threats and injuries to Dr. Pinto

The Prosecutor's Office asks for 13 years in prison for the businessman and the commissioner while the accusations demand up to 22 years in prison

MADRID, 7 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The head of the Court of Instruction Number 39 of Madrid has agreed to send the businessman Javier López Madrid and the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to trial for alleged crimes of harassment, threats and injuries with a dangerous instrument in the case of Dr. Elisa Pinto.

In an order signed on Wednesday, to which Europa Press has had access, Judge Belén Sánchez has ordered the opening of an oral trial against the two defendants and has required them to contribute, within one day and jointly and severally, a bail of 7,500 euros to "insure the pecuniary responsibilities that could be imposed on them". In line, the magistrate has warned that, if the aforementioned amount is not paid, "goods will be seized in sufficient quantity to ensure the indicated sum."

The trial will take place after Pinto denounced López Madrid for harassment and later expanded his complaint with the crime of assault for the stabbing he claims to have suffered in April 2014, when he was getting out of his vehicle accompanied by one of his sons, 10 years. Three years later, in 2017, the doctor recognized Villarejo as the author of that attack, which she would have carried out on behalf of the businessman, according to the judge's conclusion.

López Madrid and Villarejo will sit on the bench once the Prosecutor's Office concluded that in this case "there are indications" that would prove that the businessman "had agreed" with the commissioner to "harass" Dr. Pinto and "prevent" her from denounce.

The Public Ministry stressed that when the woman filed a complaint for alleged harassment, those under investigation put "all the necessary police measures to discredit the complainant."

The Prosecutor's Office insisted that --after the results of the investigation-- "it has been corroborated that the criminal activity carried out by José Manuel Villarejo, guided by the immediate and unscrupulous satisfaction of a personal desire for profit, cannot be considered as occasional or purely individual".

Thus, López Madrid and Villarejo face a prison request by the Prosecutor's Office of 13 years and two months in prison for each one for an alleged continued crime of coercion, a continued crime of threats, a crime against the Administration of Justice and two crimes of injury.

The Public Ministry has also requested compensation of 6,000 euros for Pinto for moral damages, plus 1,150 euros for injuries. In addition, he has demanded that the defendants be prohibited from approaching Pinto, the workplace or all the places that the doctor frequents for 9 years and 10 months.

According to the record, the private prosecution has requested 22 years in prison for López Madrid and Villarejo for alleged crimes against the Administration of Justice, threats, injuries, attempted murder and bribery. For the retired commissioner, he has also claimed nine years of special disqualification for employment or public office and for the exercise of the right to passive suffrage.

For its part, the popular action exercised by the Clara Campoamor association has requested for both a sentence of 17 years in prison for bribery, injuries and crime against the Administration of Justice.

Apart from this procedure, there is another in the National High Court. Last February, the Criminal Chamber supported the decision of the investigating judge to prosecute López Madrid for an alleged crime of active bribery for the order he would have made to Villarejo to harass Dr. Elisa Pinto.

This separate piece has its roots in a personal conflict between López Madrid and Pinto that has given rise to cross accusations in the Madrid investigating courts.

On the other hand, a procedure was opened in the Investigating Court 26 of Madrid for alleged crimes against moral integrity and threats suffered by the businessman, who has urged to open a trial against Pinto for the hundreds of calls that between 2013 and 2014 would have received him and his environment. The doctor, on the other hand, has asked for the file.