Rus ignores Imelsa and Ciegsa: "never" hired 'zombies' or gave orders

He affirms that he is responsible for the workers of the Provincial Council and Xàtiva: "I only ordered those who were in my charge"

VALENCIA, 26 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former president of the Provincial Council and former president of the PP of Valencia, Alfonso Rus, has ignored the extinct public company Imelsa and Ciegsa and has denied having committed any type of irregularity: "he never" hired 'zombies', he said, nor gave orders about it.

Rus has made this statement during his statement in parts B and F of the Imelsa case, for which he faces 12 years in prison for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, a continued crime of embezzlement of public funds, administrative prevarication and of falsehood in an official document committed by a public official, as claimed by the Prosecutor's Office.

In this procedure there are a total of 25 defendants and 11 of them have acknowledged the facts attributed to them in exchange for seeing their sentences reduced to 14 months in prison.

Rus, during his statement, which did not last more than half an hour since he only wanted to answer the questions asked by his lawyers, the Pérez Mora brothers, insisted that during his time in the Diputación --from 2007 to 2015 -- He was also president of Imelsa but did not make hiring decisions.

In fact, he has given as an example that the then manager of Imelsa Marcos Benavent, self-styled 'money junkie', was appointed by the council at the proposal of the PP: "The public prosecutor's office can say what it wants. It was not a unilateral decision." has underlined.

Regarding Benavent, he explained that he considers that he was a "fit" person for the position and has stressed that there was "no conflict" in his eight years of work in a company with some 700 or 800 workers. "The opposition gave him the wave. Then Benavent separated and things that happen...", he added.

Rus has recalled that it was in December 2014 when Benavent approached him at a meal and asked him to fire him because "he was not well". "He asked me to fire him to collect for the eight years worked. Since the money was not mine, I told him that I could not accept, that I did not have to give him 100 or 40 or 80. I was not going to throw it away. I asked him to leave in my office if he wanted to leave", he narrated.

"On the 26th of that month he went to Ecuador and I already had to appoint a new manager at Imelsa," Rus explained, adding that after his departure they denounced "some embezzlement" in the Prosecutor's Office that he did in the public company .

Rus has repeated that his powers in Imelsa were ceded to a deputy, that of Companies, and has pointed out that when he arrived at the public company he withdrew all VISA cards and lowered the power to contract without competition to 50,000 euros -- they were 200,000 euros--. "This has to be done as it has to be done", he has affirmed that he thought at that moment.

Asked if he hired 'zombies' in Imelsa, like former Xàtiva Olympian player Miguel Ángel Mullol, he answered "never". "All those I have hired have been for the Provincial Council cabinet, not for Imelsa. And those who were in my cabinet came every day, from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Those who were with me either worked like that or went to the streets ", he indicated.

Regarding Mullol, he has indicated that there was no favorable treatment with him and that he did not sign him: "They will have to prove that," he stated. He has also said that if it had been a common practice for Olímpic players to get paid from Imelsa, "there would have been more players", and he added that Mullol was related to the PP because he was on the Ontinyent list.

Finally and in summary, Rus has indicated that he was not informed about the activities in Imelsa since "that's what the CEO was there for," he said. He has stated that he had nothing to do with Ciegsa: "I only ordered those who were in my charge, in the Provincial Council and in the Xàtiva City Council, nothing more. I am responsible for those people. I am not responsible for what the others hired ", has affected.