The National Court sends Villarejo to trial for investigating an arbitration between media with the 'July Project'

It will be the fourth trial that the now retired commissioner faces, the second for his private business

MADRID, 7 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court judge Manuel García Castellón has once again sent José Manuel Villarejo to trial, this time for the so-called 'July Project', where the now-retired commissioner would have been in charge of investigating an arbitration process between Grupo Planeta and Kiss FM to determine if there was bribery to settle against the publishing company.

Legal sources have confirmed to Europa Press that the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 has issued an order to open an oral trial against Villarejo for this separate piece number 12 of 'Tándem', facts for which the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor asks that he be convicted to 4 years and 6 months in prison.

In July 2021, García Castellón put an end to the investigation of this line of investigation by proposing to try Villarejo and the former police officer Antonio Giménez Raso for passive bribery, as well as those responsible for Legal Advice and Security of Grupo Planeta, Luis Elías Viñeta and Antonio López, respectively, for active bribery.

This piece deals with the alleged hiring of Villarejo by Grupo Planeta to investigate one of the three arbitrators who participated in the dispute resolution procedure between the publishing company and Kiss FM, the one appointed by the Madrid Chamber of Commerce, Julio Gonzalez Soria.

According to the court account, Villarejo asked Giménez Raso to put him in contact with the head of Security, alleging that he could obtain relevant information for Grupo Planeta in relation to said arbitrator.

From that moment on, meetings between the parties took place to close the order. The magistrate gave an account of a meeting in Villarejo's office in the Torre Picasso in Madrid, which was attended by the two agents and the head of Security, and of a meal in Barcelona that Viñeta also attended.

Initially, the then commissioner advanced that his services would cost one million euros, although he later lowered the figure to 40,000 euros, offering to carry out only an investigation into the assets of the referee in question through the 'July Project'.

The report, whose objective was to determine if the arbitrator had been bribed to rule in favor of Kiss FM, was delivered in a sealed envelope by Giménez Raso to the head of Security. Grupo Planeta ended up paying the law firm led by Villarejo those 40,000 euros plus VAT, a total of 48,400 euros.

García Castellón underlined in his indictment that when the events occurred, between February and June 2014, Villarejo was still an active member of the National Police Corps, for which they would constitute alleged bribery crimes.

In this regard, the magistrate highlighted that in his proposal for services to Grupo Planeta, the then commissioner highlighted that he had "capacity to access restricted databases."

This could be the fourth time that Villarejo sits in the dock. He was already tried and acquitted in January 2021 by the Criminal Court Number 8 of Madrid of the crimes of libel and false accusation of which he had been accused by the former director of the National Intelligence Center Félix Sanz Roldán.

In this first trial, where he faced 2 years in prison, he was tried, on the one hand, for presenting an allegedly false complaint in which he accused Sanz Roldán of having leaked from the CNI to 'El País' a photograph of him that would destroy his cover as an undercover agent and, secondly, for affirming in the program 'Salvados' of La Sexta that the former head of Spanish Intelligence threatened to kill the former friend of the King Emeritus Corinna Larsen.

On October 13 of that year, he began his second trial and the first for 'Tándem'. Already seen for sentencing, Anti-Corruption asks that he be sentenced to 83 years in prison for the illegal investigations he would have carried out for a law firm, businessmen and individuals in 'Iron', 'Land' and 'Pintor' through his group business, CENYT, but using the police means at its disposal.

His third trial will start this Tuesday at the Provincial Court of Madrid. The Prosecutor's Office asks for 4 years in prison for Villarejo for allegedly ordering the recording and broadcasting of a meeting between agents of the National Police and the CNI regarding the investigation into Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, known as 'Little Nicolás'.