The order of the judge of the Court of Ourense emphasized that although several of the people examined together traveled to the city at certain times, these trips did not allow it to be concluded that they were shipments of money intended for Francisco Rodríguez, Fernando Varela or Abelardo Ulloa. With this argument, the judge submitted the part of the Pokémon case that concerns the former socialist mayor of Ourense, the BNG city councilor and the former head of the local police. According to the media, the court decision states that there is no objective evidence of the alleged favors that the investigated officials granted to the Vendex company, which prevents the accusation from continuing.
According to the text submitted, the Court of Ourense made this decision on January 5 after concluding that, within the framework of the investigation, it was not possible to collect material evidence that would prove the receipt of sums of money by the persons under investigation in return for alleged favors related to the Vendex company. “Beyond the statement made in court by two people examined together, no evidence was produced that could prove the reality of these statements,” the order quoted by the media said. In addition, the judge was of the opinion that the three respondents had always denied before the judge that they had received any amount in the course of their official duties.
The judge examined the lack of consistency between the documents presented for the case, which came exclusively from the Vendex company, and the existence of any transfers of funds to the Ourense authorities or any actions in favor of the aforementioned company. The court order reiterated that “these statements are not considered sufficient to constitute an indictment, since they are not accompanied by any objective evidence that allows these statements to be confirmed, especially considering that the three persons under investigation have denied in their statements made in court that they received any amount in return for favors related to their professional activities,” the media said.
Likewise, the court document highlighted that the investigation relied only on the statements of the jointly investigated persons to support suspicions regarding the alleged irregular payments, without there being any concrete evidence that such events had taken place. All documents contained in the file, as detailed by the court and reported by the media, came from the company in question itself and were not corroborated by external objective evidence or monetary transfers to officials.
The decision of the Court of Ourense is not final as it can be appealed to the Provincial Court. The possibility of a challenge implies that the proceedings could be reopened if the higher court sees sufficient reasons to review the archiving order, according to the media.
The so-called Pokémon operation, in which those responsible in Ourense were investigated, is a macro case that began in 2012 under the direction of Judge Pilar de Lara, as reported by several judicial sources and the media themselves. This investigation affected numerous political representatives from Galicia and other municipalities, although only one person was finally convicted: Francisco Fernández Liñares, former socialist councilor of Lugo and former president of the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation.
The original Pokémon Operation process was launched at the First Court of Lugo, led at the time by Pilar de Lara. Subsequently, the judge was dismissed from the case due to repeated delays and procedural delays reported by higher authorities, which were also reported by the media. The Pokémon operation aimed to investigate suspected corruption schemes and provide companies with economic compensation for officials and political representatives in return.
According to the media, during the investigation the various investigators repeatedly denied any connection with the alleged delivery of money or actions that favored the position or interests of the Vendex company in the urban area of Ourense. Based on the court reports and documents analyzed, we were unable to determine that the trips of some of the people under investigation were directly related to possible payments or deliveries of money to local authorities.
The submission of the specific article about Francisco Rodríguez, Fernando Varela and Abelardo Ulloa comes after a process lasting several years that failed to confirm the existence of the crimes under investigation through objective elements, as established by the court and reported by the media. This decision concerns the procedural situation of the three persons under investigation who will no longer be charged in this procedure.
Despite the file decided by the Ourense Court, other lines of investigation and procedures derived from them are continuing in the Pokémon case, although, according to the media, few damning results have been achieved so far. The extensive proceedings showed how difficult it is to prove allegations of corruption and agreements between officials and companies using valid legal criteria.
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