The judge reproached the general and 'Tito Berni' for using the Civil Guard and Congress: "Is this paseíllo normal?"

In her interrogations, the instructor contrasted the calls and meals with the ignorance alleged by both

The judge investigating the "Mediator case", Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres, criticized former Socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, alias "Tito Berni", and General Francisco Espinosa of the Civil Guard, alleged ringleaders of the plot, for using the Congress and the headquarters of the Civil Guard to receive businessmen who would have agreed to pay bribes in exchange for political favors, one of the many reproaches that he directed at them during his statements, to which Europa Press has had access.

In the interrogation carried out on the now retired general, on February 16, Lorenzo-Cáceres stated this when asked about his relationship with one of the businessmen identified by the judicial investigation, Alberto Montesdeoca. "That is a young boy, it seems to me, who has a hunt," Espinosa replied.

Given Espinosa's apparent doubts, the judge reminded him that "he visited him in Guzmán 'El Bueno', at the Civil Guard headquarters." "If you have nothing to do with this, what is the purpose of putting the institution, the image and the seriousness that it obviously projects in the middle?" she questioned.

"I didn't know who this man was. They tell me: 'I'm going to have a coffee with you and a friend is coming'; and I say: 'Well, come on.' And then they tell me who he is, that he has a cheese shop familiar, which has good cheese", he recounted, adding that later they went to eat together. "But this was to get him back into Marco Antonio's network," he added, alluding to the supposed "mediator," businessman Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte.

After this response, the magistrate insisted: "Did you know that the cheesemaker had a file with the return of a grant of more than 70,000 euros and that the purpose he sought was to solve his problems?" "I couldn't do anything or did anything, because there are things that I have very clear... And I don't have any competition or I knew anyone or I was going to do anything," he settled.

Along the same lines, the instructor made him ugly because he denied knowing both the then Socialist deputy and his nephew Taishet Fuentes Gutiérrez, whom the judicial investigation places at the top of the plot along with the general himself and Navarro Tacoronte.

"But they got to meet and eat together," she stressed, alluding to Fuentes Curbelo's nephew, before General Espinosa's repeated refusal when asked if he knew him.

The magistrate was also interested in the prepaid cards that, according to the summary - to which this news agency has had access -, General Espinosa demanded in exchange for moving his alleged influences.

He assured that no businessman gave him anything nor did he demand it, affirming that "the only one" who told him that he would give him a prepaid card was Navarro Tacoronte so that when they started working together, once the general retired, he would use it for "expenses protocols". "But he never delivered it to me," he maintained.

Faced with this, the judge snapped: "And how is it possible that there are conversations of yours requesting one of those little cards." "He told me that he was going to give me a card and I told him: 'When are you going to give me the card?' But he never gave it to me," she replied.

However, the judge ended by asking if it is not questioned that "it is part of the framework", given his intervention, with meetings with businessmen whose purpose is "to enter into contracts and operations": "Don't you think about it?"

ALSO CHARGE AGAINST 'TITO BERNI': "YOU ARE NOT LEGO"

During the interrogation of Fuentes Curbelo, on February 22, Lorenzo-Cáceres also blamed him for using the facilities of the Congress of Deputies for his alleged corruption, after 'Tito Berni' reported that one day he met a businessman canary in the lower house.

"We ate once in the cafeteria of the Congress of Deputies," he said, to which the instructor returned asking if "this walk of businessmen is normal" through the legislative headquarters. "It is common for many businessmen to come to Congress to expose their problems and try to solve them," Fuentes Curbelo justified.

Despite this, the judge insisted: "Having a director of Livestock, who is your nephew, who precedes you in the position, do they have to go to the deputy of Congress at the Madrid headquarters?

Already in his response to the prosecutor, 'Tito Berni' stated that "he appeared in the Congress of Deputies to go to the cafeteria" and they did so, emphasizing that there were many businessmen who asked him to go. "There are those who ask me for guided tours of the Congress," he stated.

The judge also reacted when Fuentes Curbelo defended that his relationship with Navarro Tacoronte was only "of known people." "Why do you provide bank account numbers 17 times to a person you know, because personal data is not given to an acquaintance," she stressed.

Faced with the version transferred by 'Tito Berni', the magistrate emphasized that "it is not understood that the data of one's personal sphere, which can compromise so much, can be provided, also by WhatsApp." What payment did you intend to receive on that account?" she added. None, he replied.

Not satisfied with that answer, the instructor went deeper by asking Fuentes Curbelo how it was possible for him to provide such data "to a person who does not even know who he is, who does not know anything, or if he comes, where he is going, where he comes from, what is dedicated".

In this context, he drew attention to the position and formation of 'Tito Berni'. "Is that the usual relationship that you establish with people? You are a deputy in the Congress of Deputies. Don't you have to have prudence in this type of effort?", he launched, to finish off: "Are you a tax advisor , he is not a layman. He is not an unformed person (...) Please, mere prudence. Does it seem normal to you?"