The first judge of the ‘Leire case’ points to people of higher “rank” in the plot than the former PSOE member

The Madrid judge Arturo Zamarriego points out, in the judicial resolution by which he transfers the investigation of the so-called Leire Díez case to the magistrate of the National Court Santiago Pedraz, that the three people he was investigating — the former socialist member who gives the case its name, the businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and the journalist Pere Rusiñol — could be secondary figures within the “important criminal network” that tried to “neutralize the investigations carried out by the UCO [Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard] into crimes allegedly committed by leaders of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.” Above them, he adds, there would be people “who could have a higher level of hierarchy.” In Pedraz’s file, the former socialist organization secretary Santos Cerdán already appears as investigated, as well as the former socialist leader Gaspar Zarrías and the PSOE manager.

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The judicial resolution, dated August 11, orders sending the entire file, including its separate parts, to the National Court considering that it is now impossible to keep both investigations separate, since the facts of one and the other appear “indissolubly linked” and their clarification requires “the processing of a single case” to be able to determine “the ownership of the money received by Leire Díez.” Thus, Pedraz will receive all the documentation accumulated in the Madrid court and the videos of the statements given by the investigated and witnesses, such as Cerdán himself.

In the document, Zamarriego points out that the investigations of the National Court have revealed the existence of “an alleged plot formed by politicians, socialist members, lawyers, and businessmen who conspired to ‘destabilize’ the judicial processes affecting the PSOE and the Government.” The head of the Madrid Court of Instruction Number 9 values the investigations carried out by the UCO within the framework of the case opened by Judge Pedraz. In his opinion, the agents’ actions have allowed escalation from Díez — whom he holds responsible for having offered Civil Guard and Prosecutor’s Office officials “remunerations or favors in exchange for information or actions contrary to their positions with the purpose of ‘attacking’ the proper direction of certain investigations” — to higher levels within the alleged criminal organization.

Zamarriego emphasizes that the documentation seized by the agents indicates that the former socialist member had the “impulse and intellectual and/or financial support” of Cerdán, then number three of the PSOE, who would have agreed to remunerate her “for her services with party funds.” He also recalls that the National Court investigation points to Zarrías and lawyers Jacobo Teijelo and Ismael Oliver, for allegedly having “lent their commercial companies as vehicles to channel such payments.” Specifically, there is evidence of four payments of 4,000 euros each through a consultancy of Zarrías; 27,225 euros from the PSOE to a company managed by Oliver; and 125,000 euros from Ferraz to Teijelo. The investigation’s thesis is that these payments ended up in Díez’s hands. Similarly, Pedraz’s case points to the PSOE manager, Ana María Fuentes, for allegedly giving “the appropriate commissioning orders on which false invoices were issued that allowed the transfer of party funds destined” for Díez and Pérez Dolset.

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Thus, Judge Zamarriego now concludes that Díez, Pérez Dolset, and Rusiñol — the three people he was investigating — “might not occupy a main place in said network.” And he understands that above them in the network would be people “who could have a higher level of hierarchy.”

With this resolution, the dispute that, since early June, Zamarriego and Pedraz maintained over the case comes to an end. The magistrate of the National Court requested on the first day of that month that his colleague recuse himself, considering that his investigation was broader, included more crimes, and reached people who were not listed as investigated in the Madrid judge’s file. The latter delayed the decision arguing that he had pending some investigative proceedings, including an expert report on a recording provided by prosecutor Ignacio Stampa, to whom the network allegedly requested sensitive information from the Anti-Corruption office. The Prosecutor’s Office appealed that decision, considering that such evidence was not essential to decide on the transfer or not of the investigation to the National Court. Now Zamarriego has sided with the public prosecutor’s office.

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