Benavent will appeal Imelsa's first sentence: "I hope I don't go to prison, I didn't expect it"

VALENCIA, 24 Jan. (EUROPE PRESS) -

The former manager of the extinct Imelsa and self-styled 'money junkie', Marcos Benavent, has assured this Tuesday that they will appeal the sentence of seven years and ten months in prison that the Court of Valencia has imposed on him in the first trial for this macro-cause, the regarding irregular awards of Thematica. Benavent has hoped not to go to prison and has admitted that this ruling was not expected.

The first sentence in the Imelsa case was made public this Tuesday -the hearing was held between May and June 2022- and coincides with the holding of the second trial, for parts B and F, relating to the alleged 'zombies' in the extinct public company of the Diputación de Valencia and Ciegsa. Among other defendants, in addition to Benavent, the former president of the provincial corporation and the PP of the province of Valencia, Alfonso Rus, now sits on the bench.

"The truth is that I did not expect it," said the former manager of Imelsa in attention to the media, since the sentence is close to eight years, which was what the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor requested. "There has been no consideration, when in this trial he did not even have a defense brief because it was not as correct as it should have been," he pointed out, referring to the change in defense counsel.

For this reason, he has recognized that "this 'castañá'" was not expected and has stressed that the sentence has been made public today, when he was to testify in the second trial. "I do not believe in coincidences, for me everything is causal; I had to declare and they published it today, how fair."

In this sense, it has advanced that they will appeal the ruling because the court did not admit many of their allegations and evidence and "because there are many things that are not clear at all." According to his version, then he did not have "the best defense strategy and I refer to the evidence" and he has stressed that there was no "chain of custody" of the audios supporting the case and yes a "manipulation".

In any case, he has trusted not having to go to prison. "I don't want many to enter; I want those who are bad to enter," said Benavent, who stressed that they have asked him for "eight as if they want to ask for 800, nothing happens."

The 'money junkie' has indicated that his relationship with Rus is currently "cordial, hello and little else" and assures that he has "destroyed" both him and "many" - alluding to when he began to testify and assured that he was going to take out "shit at the tip of a shovel" at the beginning of the case--. "We have destroyed many people, I apologize again," he reiterated, although he blamed his defense of him then, that he wanted to "intentionally splash and harm the greatest number of people and that cannot be."

For his part, his current lawyer, Juan Carlos Navarro, has been pleased that in this first ruling they have achieved part of an acquittal -- for the part of embezzlement of public funds for the payment of electoral campaigns of the Popular Party in the municipal elections of 2007 and in the general ones of the year 2008-- and now they will try to repeat it with the rest of the sections.

Therefore, they will present an appeal against the judgment of the Court that they will base on the "illegality of the evidence used to maintain the accusation", which is the pen drive that the former EUPV deputy and current Minister of Participation, Rosa Pérez, provided at the time. . For the lawyer, the room, which has rejected the request for annulment of the recordings, "has not entered into the allegations of the violation of the right to the virtual environment."

This alleged illegality in obtaining evidence from the pen drive will also be raised at the hearing that is being held these days and has ruled out that his client enters prison because that precautionary measure is agreed upon in view of the possibility that he evades the action of justice and Benavent "is appearing every day and all the investigation is doing it."