The known as ‘Caso Pitufeo’ in the PP of Valencia places on the bench this week, eight years after its beginning, the former vice mayor of the city Alfonso Grau, once the right hand of the former mayor and former senator, Rita Barberá; to the former secretary of the PP in the City Council Mari Carmen García Fuster; to the former director of the Valencia Tourism Foundation, José Salinas, and the axedil and former head of the Center for Strategies and Development (CEyD), Juan Eduardo Santón.
The case – in which the first arrests date back to 2016 – has finally been reduced to alleged irregular financing of the PP of Valencia in the 2007 and 2011 electoral campaigns.
The hearing for this procedure, part A of the Imelsa case, will begin next Tuesday, January 23, in the second section of the Provincial Court of Valencia, with the preliminary questions and the testimonies of several experts. The trial will continue, according to the provisional calendar, until February 13. The defendants’ statements are scheduled for February 5 and 6.
In total, four accused of the 49 people against whom an indictment order was issued and among whom were the PP itself and councilors and advisors of the ‘popular’ municipal group in the capital’s City Hall in Barberá’s time as mayor, for a crime of money laundering in the 2015 municipal elections.
The Provincial Court admitted the appeals of the defendants – including the party – and decreed the dismissal of the proceedings for all of them – with the exception of the four who will finally sit on the bench – and the Supreme Court, for its part, dismissed the appeals. complaint resources against the files agreed upon by the provincial body.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested in its provisional qualifications letter up to 15 years in prison for Grau – investigated in the Azud case and sentenced by the Supreme Court to nine months in prison for accepting high-end watches from a businessman who subscribed 16 contracts with the City Council between 2006 and 2015 -, seven for García Fuster and five for Santón and Salinas. That figure included the years in prison for a money laundering crime, which was ultimately not contemplated.
In the case of Grau, his prosecution and the order of the instructor, which attributed to him a role of “collector” of money for the PP in the 2007 and 2011 elections, were maintained. The instructor attributed the role to José Salinas and Juan Eduardo Santón. of collaborators in the embezzlement by agreeing to contracts, through the foundations they directed, “of vague benefit content and significant onerousness, without a sufficient explanation in defense of it.”
Regarding García Fuster, she will be tried for alleged bribery in the 2011 elections. In this case, the Court ordered the continuation of the case against her for the “alleged receipt of money of unknown origin but nevertheless linked to charges from companies for work not proven or carried out at extra cost” in the 2011 electoral campaign.
