The trial of the Police translators in which Villarejo will testify will be on January 31, 2023

It is the third time that a date has been set for this trial in which the Prosecutor's Office asks the accused for up to eight years in prison

MADRID, 27 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

On January 31, 2023, the Provincial Court of Madrid will hold the first session of the trial of two Police translators accused of extorting money from a businessman --also under investigation-- in which retired Commissioner José Manuel was expected to testify as a witness. Villarejo, as reported by legal sources to Europa Press.

It is the third time that a date has been set for the trial that, in principle, was to take place in September 2020. On that occasion, it was postponed because one of the lawyers changed lawyers. The second time it was suspended 40 minutes after it had started, because the defenses alleged that they had not been notified during the investigation of one of the pieces of evidence that the Prosecutor's Office intended to use in the trial.

It will be on January 31, 2023 when the defenses and the Public Ministry sit down again before the Fifth Section of the Provincial Court of Madrid. The sources consulted have specified that they have also been enabled on February 1, 2 and 3.

This case focuses on Ali Shan and Ijaz Ahmad, who were hired by the General Police Directorate to participate in the investigation carried out by the Central Unit for Specialized and Violent Crime (UCDV) to translate intercepted telephone conversations as part of an investigation directed by the Investigating Court number 5 of Fuenlabrada (Madrid).

The businessman Harischandra Tarachand Varma, one of those investigated in said procedure and who had had several conversations intervened, denounced in April 2014 before Internal Affairs that the translators had extorted him. According to the letter from the Public Prosecutor's Office, they offered him details of the case in exchange for an initial payment of 10,000 euros that would increase and they threatened to "influence him" if he did not agree.

The case comes to trial after Varma formalized the complaint before the Madrid courts in August 2014. According to Anticorruption, however, he did so "knowing that the facts did not conform to the truth" because "he was not a victim of any crime", since it would have ended up benefiting from the information provided by the two translators, even going so far as to demand a continuous flow of data.

For all these reasons, the prosecutors ask the three defendants for more than eight years in prison for crimes of revealing secrets, extortion, more bribery for the translators and simulation of a crime for the businessman. In addition, they have requested the file of the proceedings for a fourth investigated, whom he calls to testify as a witness to report his knowledge of the facts.

For this trial, the Prosecutor's Office has requested the statement of six police officers, including Villarejo, inspector Andrés Gómez Gordo and former head of Internal Affairs Marcelino Martín Blas, all investigated in the context of the macro-cause 'Tándem' on the commissioner's business retired.