Villarejo asks the AN to end the investigation into his business assets: "It is prospective"

His defense requests that the opening of the "patrimonial investigation" piece, number 35 of 'Tándem', be annulled

MADRID, 18 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo has asked the National Court (AN) to annul the piece in which the judge of the 'Tándem' macro-case puts the magnifying glass on the collections and payments made by CENYT, the flagship of his group business, considering that it is a "prospective" investigation.

In a letter last Thursday, to which Europa Press has had access, the defense of the retired commissioner asks the Criminal Chamber to annul the order of the investigating judge, Manuel García Castellón, by which he agreed to create a new piece of "asset investigation" with a purely "instrumental" character, number 35 of the 'Villarejo case'.

According to lawyer Antonio José García Cabrera, the aforementioned order "must be annulled for violating" Villarejo's right to effective judicial protection, "because his motivation is manifestly insufficient to justify a temporary investigation of events allegedly occurring since 2004, that is to say for 18 years."

"The motivation is manifestly insufficient to investigate the natural or legal persons who allegedly contracted with the CENYT Group," argues Villarejo's representation.

In this line, the lawyer assures that "a criminal investigation cannot be based on such a generic criminis news and with such a general, broad and vague foundation to try to discover criminal acts allegedly committed since 2004".

And it is that, he insists, "that long period of time, in which obviously even the crimes of active bribery that are intended to be investigated would be prescribed, as well as those of discovery and disclosure of secrets, tied to the generic and ambiguous justification used by all motivation makes it impossible to authorize the initiation of a criminal investigation justified in those terms because it is clearly prospective".

Lastly, Villarejo's defense concludes by pointing out that it is "this motivational deficit of the resolution" that "must lead to its annulment by the Chamber, leaving without effect the investigative procedures that have been carried out as a consequence of it, since they do not exceed the requirements imposed by the principles of specialty, suitability, exceptionality, necessity and proportionality of the measure, legally and jurisprudentially required.

In the order by which the creation of this separate piece was agreed, the magistrate ordered to obtain model 347, a fiscal document that is a list of clients where the operations with third parties of more than 3,000 euros are reflected, corresponding to the years 2004 and 2017 of several companies, including the head of CENYT, its real estate branch and its law firm.

The reason that said piece was opened is the analysis that the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police has made of part of the material found in the house of Villarejo's partner, Rafael Redondo, during the first entries and searches, carried out in November 2017 .

During the first trial for 'Tándem', the inspector who directs the investigations of Internal Affairs revealed that there is still a lot of material found then that is pending review.

As this documentary examination progressed, Internal Affairs came across what it describes as private client assignments to CENYT that were not on the judicial radar and sent two police official notices to the National High Court to account for them.

In the order, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 pointed out that the facts revealed by Internal Affairs in two reports "present characteristics of crimes of bribery and discovery and disclosure of secrets."