The judge archives after five years the investigation into the donations of businessmen to the PP in exchange for awards

MADRID, 19 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, has agreed to the provisional file of the piece known as 'finalist commissions' of the Gürtel case, which investigated the alleged donations from businessmen to the PP in exchange for the award of public works. The judge, after five years since the case was reopened, understands that the perpetration of the crimes that gave rise to the formation of this case is not duly justified.

The decision comes after Anticorruption requested the dismissal after receiving from the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE) issued a last report where no irregularities were detected in the award processes.

The case, known as the "finalist commissions", was initiated by judge Pablo Ruz in 2013, but he closed it two years later when he saw no criminal evidence other than the payment of the reform of the "popular" headquarters in Genoa with those off-the-books funds. However, what was revealed by the leader of the 'Gürtel', Francisco Correa, during the trial for the first period of the corrupt plot allowed it to be reactivated.

The former treasurer of the PP Luis Bárcenas, who until then had denied it, confessed in a letter sent to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office that some of the donations made were seeking awards. In his statement on July 16, 2021 before Pedraz, he directly implicated all the PP Ministers of Development and Environment by stating that they dealt with businessmen who contributed to this alleged unofficial accounting.

He recounted a specific episode that his predecessor in the PP Treasury, the late Álvaro Lapuerta, would have transmitted to him in his day. According to Bárcenas, Lapuerta went to the general director of State Highways and the then minister, Francisco Álvarez Cascos, scolded him, indicating that he should always contact him for such matters.

That of the former 'popular' treasurer was the last statement before Pedraz ended the investigation phase on July 29, 2021. Since then, the judge has been waiting to receive the latest report from the IGAE to decide the future of the cause.