The former Undersecretary of Health of the Generalitat Valenciana Rafael Peset has accused the ‘Gürtel’ this Thursday of “misleading the administration” during his statement in the trial that is being followed in the National Court for some of the awards to Orange Market, one of the companies of the plot.
To questions from the Prosecutor’s Office, Peset has alluded to the statement of the main leaders of Gürtel. “They have all said the same thing: that they created these companies with different administrators and objects in order to deceive the administration,” he pointed out.
In his statement, which has lasted nearly three hours, the former undersecretary has defended the contracts that he himself signed with some of the companies for the Health and Society Awards, assuring that “an official” never told him that there was something that “it was not being done well or that it could cause problems”.
“An arbitrary decision was not made. The problem was that the hiring of all the contracts could not be done because there is no company that makes dinner for 600 people, the lighting, the recording of videos… so we had to hire that way”, he assured, alluding to minor contracts.
Asked if he received any indication from former president Francisco Camps to close those agreements with Gürtel, Peset has been clear: “I did not receive any instructions from Mr. Camps, because in the eight years that I was there I did not speak with him.”
The only contact he had with Camps himself, he explained, occurred in the year 2000, when he organized a “drug act with the Proyecto Hombre association.” “I remember because of Camps’ character that he told me: I will be eternally grateful to you and you have my friendship for life. It was his way of expressing himself. But while I was in the Government I have not spoken to him,” he said.
After that event, which was organized before Camps became president of the autonomous community, Peset did not speak to him again. “We have been in acts in which we lined up and greeted us but he has never addressed me to say anything,” he added.
Peset has also given details of how he met the ringleader of the plot in Valencia, Álvaro Pérez ‘El Bigotes’. His first meeting occurred after he was entrusted with giving a “media and social dimension” to the award ceremony, which was to be a “much more important act” than initially planned.
“The undersecretary had neither the means nor the knowledge to do it. So I made it clear to the board of directors, I didn’t know anyone. In a small group I said: I have this problem. And I remember that several colleagues told me that there was a company that it was Orange Market”, he clarified.
That, he explained, was the “fruit of Álvaro Pérez” later coming to his office. It was then, he added, when he explained to ‘El Bigotes’ what was the need for his department and asked him for “a report and a valued memory”.
“(He told me) that it could be useful to carry out the event. I told him to tell me that he had to hire. He came to my office and it didn’t take long,” he continued, recounting that ‘El Bigotes’ detailed what would be necessary for carrying out the act and what the costs would be.
The oral hearing will resume next Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. That same week, Francisco Camps is expected to testify, which will close the turn of the accused.
