The judge sets aside information on Internal Affairs considering that it goes beyond the investigation into 'Kitchen'

The former head of Internal Affairs pointed to the existence of "investigations against one of the co-defendants"

MADRID, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court Manuel García Castellón has ordered the information provided by the former head of the Internal Affairs Unit (UAI) Marcelino Martín Blas, which pointed to the existence of "investigations against any of the co-defendants" by the ' Operation Kithen', considering that such data goes beyond the investigations into the alleged parapolice espionage of former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas.

In an order, last Tuesday, the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 highlights that it is "documentation related to the activity of a police unit, where people, places and behaviors are identified, supposedly criminal, completely disconnected from the present cause".

"This shows that the perimeter of action of this separate piece completely overflows, denaturing its object," says the investigating judge of the 'Villarejo case', where 'Operation Kitchen' is framed.

In addition, it recalls that "the investigation of the case has already ended, quite some time ago, so it is not possible to receive any type of additional documentation at this procedural moment", thus indicating that "the presentation made is untimely" when the ' Operation Kitchen' is already heading to the trial phase.

"Moreover, it should be emphasized that such documents contain data that, 'prima facie', appears reserved and secret", as well as "completely irrelevant data for the clarification of the facts investigated" and "unnecessary allusions to personal data of third parties not in person," he says.

For this reason, it rejects the document presented by Martín Blas, together with the one that sent all this information, while ordering the "breakdown of the documentation provided" and its delivery to the UAI "as the legitimate owner of said documentation".

The judge thus follows the criteria of the anti-corruption prosecutors Miguel Serrano and César de Rivas, in whose report - to which Europa Press has also had access - they state that there is "no relationship" between the information provided by Martín Blas and 'Kitchen '.

And "not only that", they add, to emphasize that "in the documentation provided there is information on the investigations carried out by the UAI and their results", with which it is "information that is not publicly accessible and that (... .) could deserve some kind of legal protection".

In his letter, which could also be consulted by Europa Press, Martín Blas asked García Castellón to take into account the "Memory of Activities of the UAI of the National Police for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014", which is the period during which He was in charge of that unit.

The former head of the UAI drew attention to the fact that "in those exhaustive reports that included the annual activity of the unit, there is no allusion to operations related to Mr. Bárcenas and his entourage, but to investigations against any of the co-defendants for committing alleged criminal conduct".

With this, his defense sought to prove that "a false incrimination has been concocted against my client tending to sit him on the bench at any rate, despite the fact that he has no relation to the facts that are the subject of the procedure."

It should be remembered that Martín Blas is one of the eleven prosecuted for parapolice espionage that was reportedly deployed between 2013 and 2015 from the Ministry of the Interior against Bárcenas and his family to steal sensitive information they might have from the PP and its leaders in order to avoid to reach the hands of Justice.