“The former minister is the scapegoat, the purge, to avoid other responsibilities”

-It seems that in every case where your client appears, everything revolves around their figure. Because?

-I think the political cycle is coming to an end, there is wear and tear among those in power. There are mistakes that could have been made and always, when the end of the cycle is reached, a cleaning or purging must be carried out. For society to be at peace, we must look for a person who can be relevant not only because of their functions, but also because of their lifestyle and character. We must give an image of cleanliness and look for this kind of scapegoat. Ábalos is easy prey, he is a character who, if we only focus on morality and his lifestyle, it is easy to shoot him, and that is why all the spotlight is on him.

But I think he is greatly overrated, both in what he has done and in his functions, and we must be very careful so that they do not distract the attention of all Spaniards with this desire for purification, to fire all the bullets at one man so as not to think of other possible responsibilities. We try to involve him in everything, in all causes, in public works, in hydrocarbons… there is a rush.

-But there are a lot of bad decisions, strange to say the least, like the statements to the media before entering prison…

-They can be read as clumsiness, and they precisely show that he does not have the responsibility that everyone wants to give him. We think that a person who has very high responsibilities is prepared, but he was not. This is not the cause of all the ills attributed to Spanish politics or Spanish democracy. Maybe you want to take the focus off of him and away from what’s really important. Ábalos is not the cause of all of Spain’s ills.

-Do you consider that the judicial scenario, mixed with the current political climate, could then work against you?

-We are lawyers, not politicians. Ábalos is a political beast, we do law, I hope that the media world is different from what will happen in the courts, and I have confidence in the experience of the judges and that they will be able to fairly judge the facts attributed to them. I hope there is no contamination and I wish for it.

-But it seems that the destiny of Ábalos is inexorably linked to that of the PSOE or Pedro Sánchez.

-For me, he’s the scapegoat. We are in a very special case. There are current criminal cases, then political cases. But it goes further, it is one of those causes that I call social, which interest the entire country. There is a problem with society, with the way politicians live. The problem with Ábalos is not a problem of the PP-PSOE, it is a problem of Spain against him. There is a crowd that is so fed up that they have to oppose him. But I want to send a message to Spanish society: when something is very, very obvious, be careful, because it’s really not that obvious. I defend it because I don’t like it when an entire country shoots a man in an easy way, without going further or letting off steam. I don’t like it when they shoot at ambulances, nor when they are cruel to a man who is already on his knees.

If justice finally returns the body of José Luis Ábalos, I guarantee you that it will not solve Spain’s problems. He is a type of persecuted person: White male, over 60, divorced, with a particular lifestyle. It’s more interesting than a Department of Transportation official bending highways. There is a part of the character that gives a lot of morbidity to society, and this part is paid.

-Without going into the defense strategy, do you follow through with your innocence?

-I cannot reveal to you where we will go, but we have until January 8 to present the most important brief, the defense, where we must put forward the means of proof that we want to use and request the necessary preliminary evidence before the trial, which we will do. In this defense there are two axes, one is the very fundamental defense which deals with nullities which could destroy the whole case for everyone, and then there is another axis which is the individual defense, where we analyze what Ábalos is accused of and what evidence there is against him. That the judge doesn’t buy our thesis? So far the only thing the investigating judge needs is evidence, we are not surprised that he prefers to leave it to the Court and not get involved, especially in such a delicate case.

-What does such a high-profile case mean for an office like yours?

-It is a firm that works on technical and rigorous legal work. We love it and we are focused on it, the media aspect does not affect us at all, for us it is another cause. We have them more complex. This doesn’t change anything because I don’t believe a lawyer can win a case through the media. I hope the judges appreciate this work. In fact, the Criminal Court recently commended us for one of these resources. My technique is to never think about the result, I don’t care at all. If you think about the outcome you are stressing about, you worry and it distracts your attention. We want to be satisfied with how we have proceeded legally.

-But there is so much political noise, so many people talking…

-This is why we took on this case, we like complex and difficult challenges, not to obtain media revenue, but it is the most complicated defense in the entire judicial landscape. And this does not affect us, in fact, they told us that Ábalos had abandoned the case to go to the National Court and neither the client nor we were interested, we would not have saved much time and we want to face the accusations with the best legal defense. Then it will be what God wants. There’s a fight, even though everyone says he’s already dead.

-How do you experience the procedure from prison? Do you plan to leave after the hearing on January 15?

-He is whole, he has confidence in justice and hopes, and it is his wish, to be released before his trial. Of course, he wants to be tried as quickly as possible. When we appeared on the case, a month before, there was a hearing and they released him. The instruction was almost over. They already knew what the crimes were. The judge knew perfectly well that he was facing these crimes, and that if you add them up, he risked many years in prison. The only difference between this freedom and the decision to send him to prison without bail is the letter from the prosecution. And why? I don’t know. You have to ask the judge about this.

-Are the defensive strategies of Koldo García and Ábalos as equal as they seem?

-It’s a myth. When there are co-defendants, as far as possible, we discuss between lawyers, but everyone has their own defense, this is not common. Whether they get along well or poorly, we need to discuss and see where everyone is going for optimal results.

-Does Ábalos think, judging by his interventions, that if things go wrong and he falls, he will fall with the whole team?

-From us as lawyers, no, legal war. But Ábalos is a politician who continues to play politics from prison. But we are in a legal war, we are not transactional lawyers. I would like to win the case as a lawyer and not as a blackmailer.

-The figure of the “repentant” Víctor de Aldama, what does it suggest to you?

-This is one of the motivations why we are in this business. I do not want Spain, nor Europe in general, to become a country of transactional justice where technical and legal work stops in favor of barter. I consider this very dangerous (because) people are able to sell their own mothers for profit. I’m not talking about conformity, conformity sounds fantastic to me provided you recognize what’s yours. But it’s one thing to recognize and another to put everyone in trouble.