Gürtel trial prosecutors accuse defense of using “delaying tactics”

Anti-corruption prosecutors in the Gürtel corruption trial on Wednesday rejected a battery of allegations by defense lawyers who argued their clients in the massive contracts-for-kickbacks scheme were illegally detained and that the investigation was skewed from the beginning.

The attorneys’ arguments are “nothing more but delaying tactics” with the purpose of trying to have the entire case illegally dismissed, prosecutors said.

Attorneys are trying to have the entire case illegally dismissed, say anti-corruption prosecutors

A dozen defendants, including two former tourism directors in Valencia, went on trial Tuesday on charges related to the awarding of €5 million in public contracts to the Gürtel network of corrupt businessmen.

The tenders were given to Orange Market – an alleged ghost company run by one of the defendants – for the construction, design and dismantling of the Valencia government’s showroom at Fitur and other tourism fairs across Spain between 2006 and 2009.

Investigators believe that the contracts were overpriced and that kickbacks were handed out before they were awarded.

In the dock are Francisco Correa, the alleged mastermind behind the Gürtel scheme; Pablo Crespo, a former Popular Party (PP) official in Galicia and Correa’s right hand man; and Álvaro Pérez, the network’s suspected point man in Valencia who represented Orange Market.

Also on trial are former Valencia tourism directors Milagrosa Martínez and Angélica Such, plus four mid-level former regional government officials and three of Correa’s assistants.

The trial, which is taking place in Valencia’s Regional High Court, is expected to last until October. It is the first of several that will be held for 41 defendants who are charged with their part in bid-rigging schemes during PP governments in Valencia, Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha between 1999 and 2005.

Former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas will also stand trial in the High Court in an offshoot of the Gürtel case, while former Health Minister Ana Mato, although not a suspect, may have to face related civil liability proceedings.

Prosecutors are asking for a total of 800 years for all 41 suspects.

Investigators have spent five years following the leads of a case that involves six regional governments and nearly 200 official suspects.

Correa’s lawyers said their client was illegally detained in February 2009 when the case broke

In this particular case, anti-corruption prosecutors and the Socialists, who filed a separate public prosecution, are asking for 11 years for Martínez and Crespo, 10 years for Correa and Pérez, and a nine-year suspension in public service for Such.

On Wednesday, prosecutors attacked the defense lawyers’ opening arguments demanding that the charges be dropped because their clients’ rights had been violated. Correa’s lawyers said their client was illegally detained in February 2009 when the case broke.

“It is surprising that after six years of proceedings and despite having presented an avalanche of motions during that time asking for his release while he was in prison, this is the first time we hear an allegation of a serious rights violation. This just goes to show the weakness in that argument,” said the prosecutor.

Correa was released in 2012 after posting a €200,000 bail.

According to the prosecution, the alleged Gürtel mastermind was remanded into custody so that authorities could continue their investigations, including searches at various agencies. He was taken before a judge during the required 72-hour period from the time of his arrest as the law prescribes, the prosecutor said.

Answering allegations that the investigation was political and conducted in bad faith by authorities, including former High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón, who initiated the inquiry, the prosecutor said that the entire probe has been fair.

The court decided on Wednesday to suspend the trial until June 11, as requested by the defense teams of the 13 accused. The magistrates said they believed this would allow the sides to properly study the documents that comprise the key parts of the case.