The anti-corruption prosecutor has reduced the sentencing request for Eduardo Zaplana from 19 to 17 years in prison and a 40 million euro fine in his final qualification that he is presenting to the court in the Erial case. The reason is that of the crimes of which the former president is accused, the public ministry withdraws the charge of falsehood. But he maintains the bulk of the sentences for the rest of the crimes. He also lowers the sentencing request for defendants who have reached an agreement with the prosecution.
Thus, for the former chief of staff, Juan Francisco García, who had an initial sentence of 14 years, a sentence of two years and 11 months in prison and a fine of 1.3 million euros is now requested. The prosecutor has requested that he not go to prison. For Joaquín Barceló, Zaplana’s front man, a sentence of one year and eight months in prison for money laundering and criminal group is requested, compared to the eight that was initially requested, and a fine of five million euros. “They have had the courage to recognize serious acts of corruption crimes,” said prosecutor Pablo Ponce.
Vicente Cotino receives a sentence of two years and six months for money laundering, bribery and falsehood, and a fine of 4.3 million euros. For his brother José, a fine of 320,000 euros for bribery. The prosecutor has withdrawn the accusation against the defendants Elvira Suanzes, Pedro Romero and Ángel Salas.
During his intervention, the anti-corruption prosecutor has detailed the corrupt behavior that he allegedly had for years and in which he has reproached him for not having “the honesty to acknowledge his part before his friends” by not assuming his responsibility in the ITV rigging. and the wind plan and for “using so many friends” for his own benefit. For four and a half hours and uninterruptedly in this Tuesday’s session of the trial for the Erial case, Ponce has spun a scathing, sometimes ironic account of events , with satirical references, and always incisive, which has surprised by its eloquence and the crudeness with which it has detailed the crimes it attributes to Zaplana.
“That the first one testified was important, we wanted it to be that way, but he did not have the honesty to admit his part to his friends,” the prosecutor reproached the former PP minister. “Zaplana was released from prison not because of his illness, but because we recovered the money from abroad,” confessed the prosecutor, who together with the investigating judge of the case (the head of Instruction 8) were the subject of criticism for their decision to maintain preventive detention despite the oncological disease suffered by the former president.
He has also had words of gratitude for the Civil Guard agents, despite their “low salaries and rewards.” “When all these good people put themselves to work, nothing but good things come out,” he said.
At another point in his report, Ponce recalled that in the searches 19,000 euros in cash were seized from Zaplana and another 50,000 from his personal secretary. “How much cash does this person need in their daily lives? This is incompatible with the life of a real person,” stressed the prosecutor, who later recalled the former president’s luxurious vacations with yachts paid for – officially – by third parties.
“He has always needed money, since 1992,” he added, alluding to the conversations in the Naseiro case. Regarding the real estate operation in La Finca (Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid), the prosecutor has warned that “there he had to show his face” because the owner of the land, Luis García Cereceda, “with Zaplana’s friend – Joaquín Barceló , who bought the land supposedly in Zaplana’s name – was not even going to drink coffee.”
