The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz will investigate whether the police in the era of Jorge Fernández Díaz investigated the Podemos party without judicial control when its leader was Pablo Iglesias. The instructor has admitted to procedure a complaint filed by the formation against the former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez, the former deputy operational director (DAO) Eugenio Pino and other senior police officers.
In an interlocutory hearing, the magistrate partially admits Podemos’ complaint but refuses to investigate the former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz and the former director general of the police Ignacio Cosidó. The crimes for which action will be taken are those of criminal organization, power of attorney and disclosure of secrets, administrative fraud and document falsification.
In his letter, Podemos pointed out that the number two of the Interior had ordered the police, with the approval of Fernández Díaz, “to carry out prospective investigations unrelated to any police interest, not under judicial or fiscal control, on the people that formed Podemos”.
The main objective, according to this formation, was to later leak it to the media under the seal of reliability of “police sources” and to discredit Podemos in public opinion, as well as to attempt in this way against the indemnity of its deputies and other public positions.
This way of operating, the complaint indicates, took shape in eight actions, such as the investigation into the leader of the party Pablo Iglesias in the PISA report, the leakage of a “false” document from an account in his name at Euro Pacific Bank Limited or the manipulation of documents or internal police records to give the defendants the appearance of legality.
In the interlocutory hearing, Judge Pedraz explains that after examining the complaint and verifying that some of the facts would indeed be within the competence of the National Court and constitute a criminal offence, it is appropriate to admit it, albeit partially.
With regard to the facts and persons he inadmissible, the magistrate affirms that from the narrative of the complaint it cannot be affirmed and supported by evidence that all the defendants participated in their actions with the criminal purpose that is imputed.
In this sense, he says, it is not appreciated that Fernández Díaz and Cosdió, among others, intervened in the investigation of facts relating to deputies. “It should be pointed out that nothing more is reported about the minister or the general director of the police than the assumption that due to the positions they held they should have known and authorized the events”.
According to Pedraz, the aforementioned imputation is insufficient to admit the complaint against them. The director general is said to have leaked information to the press, “which is an assertion that does not allow to support the imputation of having consented to or participated in investigations against members of Parliament”. All this, warns the instructor, without prejudice to the fact that in the course of the investigation of the case, evidence appears against them.
Regarding the proceedings requested by Podemos, the magistrate rejects the testimonial statements of journalists regarding the sources of media information, given that “journalism professionals are not obliged to testify about the sources”.
He adds that it also does not appear in the account of facts that the media participated in the dissemination of false news knowing that they were, so their activity is protected by professional secrecy and by article 20 of the Constitution, which recognizes the right to information.
Yes, the judge admits to practicing others, such as requesting from the central court of inquiry six different information about the Tandem case, such as the proceedings related to the examination of the content of the messages that were on Francisco Martínez’s mobile phone.
