Supreme Court Justice Leopoldo Puente issued this Thursday the order to open an oral trial for the former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos, his former advisor Koldo García and the businessman Víctor de Aldama for the conspiracy of masks during the coronavirus pandemic. Covid. The magistrate has now agreed to keep Ábalos and Koldo in preventive detention.
Puente adopts this decision after having confirmed yesterday the Appeal Chamber of the High Court upheld the proceedings against those under investigation. In the order issued this Thursday, the magistrate affirms that “he agrees to open an oral trial against the defendants Mr. José Luis Ábalos Meco, Mr. Koldo García Izaguirre and Mr. Víctor Gonzalo de Aldama Delgado, due to the facts contained in the order by which the course of the procedure was agreed to the rules provided for the abbreviated criminal procedure, qualified and enriched with non-essential aspects in the indictments, facts respective. provisionally qualified as constituting two offenses: integration into a criminal organization; ongoing corruption, active and passive; exploitation of privileged information, misappropriation of public funds;
Furthermore, in the resolution, the instructor demands that Ábalos and Koldo provide a deposit of 60,000 euros in order to ensure the financial responsibilities that ultimately may be imposed on them. Once this order to open the oral trial is issued, the former minister and former organizational secretary of the PSOE loses the possibility of abandoning the file and referring the case to the National Court. As reported last Monday THE WORLDit is predictable that the one who was Pedro Sánchez’s right arm will be judged by the Supreme Court in the first quarter of 2026.
Alongside the fraudulent purchase of masks during the pandemic, the Criminal court chaired by the magistrate Andres Martínez Arrieta will also judge Ábalos, Koldo and Aldama for the relationships of the former minister’s relatives in public companies, the rental operation of a chalet in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) or the stay of the former minister in a holiday chalet in Marbella (Málaga)among other facts. José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García are currently in detention. preventive detention at the penitentiary center Soto del Real (Madrid)where they will remain awaiting the hearing.
THE Anti-corruption prosecution demanded 24 years in prison for the former Minister of Transport and 19 years for his former advisor in this separate case. Thus, the minimum prison sentence to which the former incur number 2 of the PSOE for the five crimes attributed to him is 12 and a half years in prison.
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