Almost ten months after it began, the trial for the railway disaster in Santiago de Compostela concluded yesterday practically the same as it began, with the war in the attribution of responsibilities between the only two defendants, the driver Francisco José Garzón Amo and Andrés Cotabitarte, ex-security manager of the Railway Infrastructure Administrator, Adif. At the final act of the hearing, the intervention of both defenders, because the defendants declined to speak, they charged the other party again. “Everything at Adif and everything at Renfe has been done well except for the behavior of the driver”, said Ignacio Sánchez, lawyer for Cortabitarte. The one from Garzón, Manuel Prieto, denounced the “negligence of Adif” in the face of the risk of the turn of the disaster, which was “an outcry”.
It may be that the marked difference between the length of the interventions of the defenses is explained by the style of each lawyer, but in the context of the hearing the little more than an hour that Cortabitarte’s lawyer spoke and the nearly three of Garzón’s express the current situation. In October, the two defendants entered the special room that the Xunta set up in the City of Culture of Santiago for the macro-judgment under the request for four years in prison presented by the prosecutor, as well as the private accusations.
A little over a month ago, Cortabitarte got rid of the most serious accusation, that of the public ministry, which he did keep for Garzón. It was in the last procedure, that of confirming or modifying the conclusions, when the prosecutor Mario Piñeiro dropped the bomb, after no significant element appeared during the trial that had not been known during the very long investigation.
The rectification of the Prosecutor’s Office triggered the anger of the victims. Yesterday, in the rally at the door of the hearing room, they made it clear again that from their point of view the responsibility of the former high official of the public company Adif, representative of the State as they emphasized, is greater than that of the machinist himself. Jesús Domínguez, president of the main group of victims, the Platform of Victims of Alvia 04155, has stated these days, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Monday’s tragedy, that prosecutor Piñeiro received “orders from above”. At the center of this controversy is the State Attorney General himself, Álvaro García Ortiz, former environmental prosecutor in Galicia, although he denies having intervened in the case.
However, even if the Prosecutor’s Office has returned to the position it had until 2016, when the report of the European Railway Agency aborted at the last moment the plan to try only the train driver, the situation is now different. Cortabitarte remains in the dock accused by more than fifty parties and depends, like Garzón, on the sentence.
According to what has transpired, judge Elena Fernández Currás could issue it in the spring, due to the complexity of the case, although judicial times are always relative, as is also the case with the more than two years that, for analogy with the Prestige, it can be calculated that it will take a long time for the firm decision of the Supreme Court.
Since the last turn of the Prosecutor’s Office there was the impression that although Cortabitarte may be sentenced in Santiago, it was more difficult for the Supreme Court not to acquit him. In this high instance, the reason of the State, invoked in private and embodied in the force of the facts, can weigh more, since the agreement reached the day after the accident, at the same bend, the popular minister Ana Pastor and the head of the opposition, the socialist Pérez Rubalcaba. However, in the last few weeks, the pressure was again felt against the conviction of only the train driver of the European Railway Agency, which has opened an infringement procedure against Spain.
In addition, at the trial there was another big war, that of civil liability, of 58 million euros, in case the insurance company of Renfe should assume them alone or half with that of Adif.