Over a dozen officials acknowledge receipt of money

More than a dozen former and current Popular Party officials have acknowledged in one way or another that they received money from their organization as reflected in ledgers allegedly prepared by Luis Bárcenas and another former PP treasurer.

Senate speaker Pío García Escudero and former Navarre People's Union (UPN) deputy Jaime Ignacio del Burgo both said they requested and received money from the PP as loans when their homes suffered damage in ETA attacks, in 2000 and 2001 respectively. The UPN is closely aligned with the PP in Congress.

The ¡Basta Ya! civic platform was noted in the ledgers as receiving a 3,005-euro donation from the PP in 2002. "That's perfectly possible," said the platform's former spokesman Carlos Martínez Gorriarán, who is now a UPyD deputy. ¡Basta Ya! is an antiterrorist organization based in the Basque Country.

Compensation

Calixto Ayesa, the former health commissioner in the Navarre regional government, is listed as receiving various amounts between 1991 and 1992. In a statement, Ayesa admitted he "received" the money from the party that was attributed to other payments made to Del Burgo.

"During the years 1991-92, different amounts appear that total 3.9 million pesetas - 23,239.70 euros - under the name of Jaime Ignacio del Burgo," he said. The money was actually given to Ayesa as compensation for closing his dermatology clinic when he joined the Navarre government, he said.

At first, rightwing political commentator Federico Jiménez Losantos denied that his Libertad Digital news website received any money from the PP as stated in the ledgers.

But now he said that the 36,100 euros given in December 2004 may have gone to pay for political ads during the electoral campaign earlier that year.