The former president of Deportivo Alavés Dmitri Piterman has not appeared at the trial that was opened against him starting this Monday for the alleged misappropriation that he carried out during his mandate, so the court has declared him in absentia and has issued a new APB.
The trial, scheduled for the entire week, has begun in the Álava Court and this Monday the other defendant, Piterman’s ‘right hand’, the Cantabrian businessman José Nereo, has attended.
At the beginning of the hearing, Piterman’s defense alleged medical reasons for requesting the suspension and explained that he is scheduled to have knee surgery this Tuesday, in California (United States), where he lives. Piterman left Deportivo Alavés in 2007 and has not returned to Vitoria since.
The defense has assured that the former president of Alavés intends to appear in the future, which is why he has asked to postpone the oral trial.
However, the prosecutor has demanded that the hearing be held because he understands that the medical information presented is insufficient, that the trial has been scheduled since October and that Piterman has not collaborated, but that his location has been difficult.
Finally, the court has decided that the trial should continue, not considering Piterman’s absence justified because it is not an emergency operation, but a scheduled one, and in a private clinic, so he is not on the waiting list.
Furthermore, the Álava Court has declared him in absentia, which means issuing a search and arrest warrant. Piterman already had another one due to previous trials, without him having been arrested so far.
The hearing was left with the sole presence of the Cantabrian businessman as the accused, who did attend the trial. Nereo’s defense and the accusations have taken a break to try to reach an agreement and reorganize the trial sessions in the absence of Piterman. They have not been able to do so at the moment and have asked the court to suspend the trial until this Tuesday.
The court has agreed, so the two parties will continue negotiations to see if they reach an agreement. If they succeed, the trial will end this Tuesday; If not, it will continue all week.
For Nereo, who was managing director of Alavés and Piterman’s ‘right-hand man’, the Prosecutor’s Office requests the same as for the former president, 7 years in prison, which the club’s private accusation raises to 9 years.
The events of which he is accused occurred during his presidency, between 2004 and 2007. Piterman bought Alavés in 2004 – a year after having acquired Rácing de Santander – and named himself president and CEO of the club. His wife was the vice president and Nereus was a counselor. They were in command until July 2007.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, acting “for their own benefit”, Piterman and Nereo appropriated funds from Alavés, causing damage of 3,161,968 euros.
It is not the first trial that Piterman has faced for his management at Alavés, after generating a debt of 25 million euros that led the club to bankruptcy proceedings years later.
For this reason, Piterman was already sentenced by the Álava Court to compensate the football club with 6.8 million euros, but the compensation was annulled in 2015 by the Supreme Court because liability for deficit was established, when it was not legally appropriate.
