The judge of the 'Villarejo case' listens this Thursday to a witness for the alleged espionage of former consul Vinyals

He is a former lawyer from the legal team of the also ex-president of the Pro Seleccions Catalanes Platform

MADRID, 16 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court that is investigating the private businesses of José Manuel Villarejo will take a statement this Thursday from a witness as part of the investigations into the alleged espionage that the now retired commissioner would have directed against the former Latvian consul in Barcelona and president of the Catalan Pro Selections Platform, Xavier Vinyals.

Legal sources consulted by Europa Press confirmed that it is a former member of Vinyals' legal team, whom the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor had asked to listen to. With his appearance, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6, Manuel García Castellón, will give a boost to this new line of investigation of the 'Tándem' macro-cause, the last to be opened that refers to an alleged assignment.

Vinyls declared that he had been harmed on July 6 to confirm that he was spied on by the Villarejo business group, CENYT, in the so-called 'Goblin project', giving details of that alleged surveillance. That same day, Villarejo's partner, Rafael Redondo, the former police officer Antonio Giménez Raso and the alleged client, Daniel Castells, appeared, and they accepted their right not to testify.

According to the judicial account, Castells would have hired Villarejo to find "something" from Ramón Vinyals and/or his son Xavier that would give him a certain advantage when it came to resolving the conflict they were having over a procedure where the Vinyals accused Castells of misappropriation and for which the Prosecutor's Office asked him for prison and million-dollar compensation.

The work would have been carried out through a company linked to Giménez Raso, "a sort of subsidiary of the CENYT Group", the Villarejo company. Castells would have paid 15,000 euros for it.

García Castellón sees indications that Villarejo investigated Vinyals "illicitly", pointing to possible crimes of bribery and discovery and disclosure of secrets, which he attributes to Villarejo, Redondo, Giménez Raso and Castells.

It was on May 12 when the investigating judge agreed to open this new piece after coming across the report prepared by CENYT on the 'Goblin project' in a letter written by the Internal Affairs Unit (UAI).

This police unit has already issued several official letters pointing out more than 80 projects that until now were not on García Castellón's radar because they have been located within the framework of the analysis of the enormous documentation seized in the first records of the 'Villarejo case', in 2017. , which is still under review.

The magistrate has commissioned Internal Affairs to determine which of the new projects identified were actually paid for and carried out and which remained a mere offer of services to decide later if 'Tandem' continues to grow, already made up of 35 separate pieces.