The former PP treasurer, Luis Bárcenas, explained to the National Court that he had contact with an inmate “with computer skills” whom he tasked with destroying some recordings related to former president Mariano Rajoy. “I think he must have done something because when I later regained my freedom, I had nothing in the cloud,” he said. Bárcenas also assured that he had hired Sergio Ríos between 2013 and 2014 as a driver, but indicated that he also provided “support as an administrative assistant.” “He came highly recommended and that was the reason for hiring him,” Bárcenas pointed out, adding that he was recommended by the then head of security of the Popular Party. Furthermore, Bárcenas explained that, after he went to prison, from July 2013, his wife told him that she had “the impression of being followed,” but then Rosalía Iglesias thought they were journalists: “She never thought it was a police device,” Bárcenas expressed. Iglesias is also summoned this Monday to testify as an injured party. The couple is acting as private prosecution in this case and is requesting 41 years in prison for the two main defendants, former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz and his number two Francisco Martínez.
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Bárcenas says he tasked another inmate with destroying a recording “he had in the cloud” about Mariano Rajoy
Bárcenas says he had contact with an inmate “with computer skills” whom he tasked with “accessing certain information he had related to the procedure and following instructions that he would give him periodically.” The former PP treasurer commented that, for this work, he paid him about 4,000 or 4,500 euros and gave him the instructions in writing: “I gave him a note, I gave him the email addresses, the access keys,” Bárcenas indicated in the trial before adding that the inmate had told him he was going on leave and that it was the moment when he “could do the job,” which consisted of destroying some recordings related to Mariano Rajoy: “That note [referring to one shown by the public prosecutor] is related to what he had to do once he accessed the audios related in this case to M. R., who was Mariano Rajoy.” “I think he must have done something because when I later regained my freedom, I had nothing in the cloud,” Bárcenas said.
Bárcenas indicates that he ordered his driver to collect the documentation from Génova and take it to his wife’s premises in Madrid
Bárcenas has denied having personally moved documentation from his office at the PP headquarters to his wife’s office, but rather ordered his driver Sergio Ríos to collect the documentation: “When I had to leave my office at Génova 13 [referring to the national headquarters of the Popular Party], which was at the end of January 2013, there was a series of important documents left there. As I did not have access to that office, after my lawyer negotiated with the legal advisor of the Popular Party, a person was authorized to go and collect that documentation, and I, within those auxiliary functions he performed for me, tasked Mr. Ríos with taking care of it,” indicated the former PP treasurer, who pointed out that “given the volume of documentation there was, he had no other place to put it” than his wife’s premises on General Díaz Porlier street in Madrid, from where the defendants allegedly stole the documentation.
Luis Bárcenas’ testimony begins in the ‘Kitchen case’ trial: “My wife had the feeling of being followed since July 2013”
The former PP treasurer, Luis Bárcenas, has begun his testimony at the National Court and, in response to questions from the Prosecutor’s Office, explained that he had hired Sergio Ríos between 2013 and 2014 as a driver, but indicated that he also provided “support as an administrative assistant.” “He came highly recommended and that was the reason for hiring him,” Bárcenas pointed out, adding that he was recommended by the then head of security of the Popular Party. Furthermore, Bárcenas explained that, after he went to prison, from July 2013, his wife told him that she had “the impression of being followed,” but then Rosalía Iglesias thought they were journalists: “She never thought it was a police device,” Bárcenas expressed.
The ‘Kitchen case’ trial
The Kitchen trial brings the focus back to Rajoy and his leadership in the Government and the PP
The PP’s strategy to distance itself from the Kitchen case trial becomes even more complicated starting this week. The National Court tribunal hosting the oral hearing on the espionage operation activated in 2013 against Luis Bárcenas, which began in early April, is preparing to interrogate Mariano Rajoy next Thursday, who was President of the Government (2011-2018) and of the conservative party (2003-2018) during the years in which the Ministry of Interior allegedly deployed a plot to seize compromising documents that the former popular treasurer might still hold about high-ranking officials of the party. Among them, the head of the Executive himself. This is the third time Rajoy testifies in a process of this magnitude: he already did so in 2017 in the main part of the Gürtel case, and in 2021 in the Bárcenas papers case. On both occasions, he denied the PP’s slush fund, which the courts have deemed proven.
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THE ‘KITCHEN CASE’ TRIAL
Video analysis | Third week of the Kitchen trial: awaiting the ‘Asturian’
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Good morning. Luis Bárcenas and his wife Rosalía Iglesias testify this Monday in the Kitchen case trial at the National Court as victims of this alleged parapolice plot to steal sensitive documentation from the former treasurer, which was important for the PP and its leaders amidst the investigation into the Gürtel case and the party’s slush fund.
The couple is acting as private prosecution in this case and is requesting 41 years in prison for the two main defendants, former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz and his number two Francisco Martínez. Along with them, eight other defendants are in the dock, including his former driver Sergio Ríos, whom the plot recruited as an informant. For him, the Bárcenas family is asking for 33 years in prison with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of trust.
