The statement from Zapatero’s friend delays the explanation about the jewels

The former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has delayed giving the pertinent explanations about the origin of the jewels that he kept in the safe of his office and that were seized when the police entered in May to take all the documentation that could shed light on the alleged influence peddling for which he is being investigated as the head of a plot. The researchers did not imagine that there could be that amount of jewelry of unknown origin there. When it was communicated to the judge of the National Court investigating it, José Luis Calama, he had it appraised at a jewelry store. The conclusion was that its value is 1.3 million euros.

The judge opened a new case for an alleged tax crime and another for smuggling because Zapatero had not declared these jewels. The former president’s entourage assured that they were gifts from the king of Saudi Arabia to his wife, Sonsoles Espinosa, when he was leader of the Executive. In fact, his secretary told the police that they were an inheritance from his boss’s wife. However, as of today there is no official version, as confirmed by legal sources. When Zapatero testified before the judge on June 17, he did not want to answer the questions of the instructor or the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office about the origin of these jewels, but he told them that in a week, maximum ten days, they would be in a position to give a convincing explanation. In this period of time something happened that has delayed this explanation.

One day after the interrogation of the former president, the magistrate agreed to the official investigation against his daughters, Laura and Alba Rodríguez Espinosa, and against his secretary, Gertrudis Alcázar. And six days later, he informed Zapatero’s friend Julio Martínez Martínez – investigated since the beginning of the case for the rescue of the Plus Ultra airline – that he would take a statement from him on July 21.

Since then, the businessman, who would have paid nearly half a million euros to Zapatero for advice, has changed lawyers and is preparing his statement with great secrecy.

Legal sources open the door to the possibility that Martínez could recognize certain aspects of the investigation, which would leave the former president in a delicate judicial situation. Therefore, these sources believe that this may be the reason why Zapatero is delaying explanations about the jewels while waiting for the new position of the man who was his trusted man since he left the Presidency of the Government and the leadership of the PSOE to be known.

These sources point to the possible “Aldama effect”, the corrupting businessman of the former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos who has escaped prison for confessing that he paid the former minister and former organizational secretary of the PSOE and his advisor Koldo García in exchange for obtaining public contracts and opening the doors to other administrations governed by party leaders.

Both the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the Supreme Court have established, as a result of the Mascarillas case, the new paradigm of what the fight against corruption will be: whoever reveals or confesses will be rewarded and will avoid assuming criminal responsibility. Under this premise, Martínez will decide on Tuesday, when he sits before the judge, whether to confess the accusations and indications leveled against them in the investigation and which deal with the alleged delivery of payments to Zapatero for influencing the Government in favor of the company Plus Ultra to obtain a ransom of 54 million euros, channeling certain payments through the company of President Whathefav’s daughters, and also influencing through Venezuelan and Bolivian leaders and even creating an offshore company. in Dubai.

Martínez could recognize these indications collected in the judicial case and thus benefit from the judicial benefits or, on the contrary, deny the greater as Zapatero did. The former president defended Martínez as a businessman and friend, saying that he worked for him as a main consultant for his company, Relevant Analysis (AR), and that he hired his daughters’ company to do marketing work. He also denied that he had made any representation in the Government in 2021 in favor of Plus Ultra, despite the fact that Martínez was in turn billing the airline. Tomorrow all the unknowns will be revealed.

Martínez is the cornerstone of the entire case against Zapatero, so their criminal future is closely linked to each other. The businessman, whom he met in his last year of office in 2011 and was joined by his love of running, has in his hands the former president, his daughters, to whom he paid a total of 240,000 euros, and his secretary, who would have directly managed with AR the concepts for billing and even the creation of an off-shore company.