The National Court has sentenced retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to three years and six months in prison for the so-called Dina case. The court considers it proven that the former National Police agent, sentenced to another 16 years in prison for various espionage projects, is behind a scheme to illicitly traffic information obtained from a mobile phone stolen from Dina Bousselham, who was an advisor to Pablo Iglesias during his time as a Podemos MEP. Through a ruling dated this Tuesday, the judges declare Villarejo guilty of a crime of revealing secrets and also impose a payment of compensation of 1,000 euros to the former leader of the left-wing political force; and 5,000 euros to his former collaborator — amounts for which the General State Administration will be liable as a subsidiary civil responsible party —.
At the trial, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested that the commissioner be sentenced to five years in prison. But the court applied the mitigating circumstance of undue delays, due to the time elapsed from the commission of the crimes (in 2016) until the conclusion of the oral hearing (in March 2026). “The mere temporal lapse of 10 years leads to the application of the mitigating circumstance,” emphasize the judges who sign the ruling — Teresa Palacios, Javier Mariano Ballesteros, and Francisca María Ramis —. This same court is currently trying the Kitchen case, for the espionage orchestrated from the Ministry of the Interior against the former Popular Party treasurer Luis Bárcenas. That operation took place between 2013 and 2015.
Bousselham reported that her mobile phone was stolen on November 1, 2015, while she was shopping with her partner at the Ikea in Alcorcón (Madrid). In mid-2016, the phone’s content began to be published in various media; and after the arrest of José Manuel Villarejo at the end of 2017, the Police Internal Affairs Unit found copies of the advisor’s files in his possession.
In its ruling, the court finds it proven that “unknown persons” surreptitiously took Bousselham’s mobile phone. Then, the mobile’s SIM card “was sent” to the headquarters of Zeta, the publishing group of the now-defunct magazine Interviú, which decided not to publish its content. However, according to the judges, its then director, Alberto Pozas, “made a complete copy” of the material, which he handed over along with his deputy Luis Rendueles to Villarejo. “The card they handed to the accused and which he viewed contained files with internal documents of Podemos, various bank data, video and audio files, other documents with intimate and personal files, including photographs of Dina Bousselham semi-nude, and various Telegram chat groups, in which other members of the leadership of the said political party were registered,” details the court ruling.
The National Court emphasizes that, subsequently, Villarejo provided the files “to journalists in his trusted circle from El Confidencial and the website Okdiario,” so that various reports discrediting Podemos and its then secretary general could be prepared and published.