The National Court of Justice has decided to postpone the start of the trial of Francisco Camps, former president of the Generalitat Valenciana, who faces a request from the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office to two and a half years in prison for his alleged involvement in the Belt case. The oral hearing was due to start the pre-interrogation phase this Monday, but the court has agreed to postpone the start until next week after several lawyers – including that of the former leader of the PP – alleged difficulties in accessing documents the summary, that creates “helplessness”. Previously, Camps had used the presence of cameras to defend his time as state executive despite the multitude of senior officials already convicted in other trials, as the court itself found the party’s illegal funding in the community during the 2007 and 2008 election campaigns to be proven. when he was president.
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Judge José Antonio Mora, President of the Court, was responsible for announcing the decision to postpone the start of the trial by one week: “The Chamber, aware that it guarantees the right of defence, will continue the trial for a week suspend . From that moment they have time to enter the office and access these documents with the computer scientists at their disposal”. As detailed by the judge, who is also trying to avoid possible “cancellations” leading to a repeat of the trial, the hearing will eventually resume on January 30 at 10:00 a.m.
So the National Court has had a very hectic day. This Monday, two particularly media trials coincided and those involved met at the headquarters of San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) to face their respective trials. On the one hand, the ground floor room hosted the accused of belonging to the Belt conspiracy: among them its main leaders (Francisco Correa; Pablo Crespo; and Álvaro Perez, aka El Bigotes) and the accused part of its Valencian network, including camps and other high-ranking officials of their regional governments . On the other hand, a hearing was planned on the first floor against 47 suspected members and collaborators of the Mallorcan branch of the Los Angeles del Infierno motorcycle gang, who are accused of crimes such as criminal association, drug trafficking and money laundering.
Minutes before President Mora announced the decision to postpone the start of the trial, Camps spoke himself before entering the courthouse. The former leader has turned himself in front of television cameras to defend his innocence and portray himself as a victim of political “persecution”. “It’s an absolute scandal. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor has been trying for 14 years to destroy my work as President of the Generalitat and that of so many people who have worked with me in the great project that we have started in the Valencian Community,” he said before he died Process as a “nightmare”. And he riveted: “None of the people who come to court put a euro in their pocket. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
But the story the Public Ministry is putting on the table is quite a different one. Also that of investigating judge José de la Mata, who concluded that Camps had maneuvered in 2009 to improperly award a contract to the Belt plot companies, favoring the Francisco Correa network “as he has been doing since 2005.” . “There is evidence,” wrote the National Court judge, “that [el expresidente] decided to award Orange Market and provided the relevant instructions for achieving such an outcome”.
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The defendants’ dock with Álvaro Pérez, Pablo Crespo and Francisco Correa in the front row; and Francisco Camps, background right, this Monday.
The investigations against De la Mata and the prosecutor’s office give Camps a key role for Correa’s corrupt network to establish itself in the Valencian community. “We are not faced with an isolated and unrelated testimony from some individuals investigated as the Francisco Camps defense pleads […] In reality, we are faced with an arsenal of very consistent evidence that enables us to confirm that Camps participated in managing the major events contract at Fitur 2009 for Orange Market. And that he did it to favor Orange Market, as he had done since 2005, in exchange for his patience and resignation in the face of non-payment of the multimillion-dollar debt owed to Orange Market and by the PP of the Valencian Community his ‘collaboration’ in accepting the illegal payment formulas used by the PP to cancel the stated debt,” the instructor wrote urgently.
Camps also faces another adversity. Various defendants have reached an agreement with Anticorruption and have admitted their involvement. Among them Francisco Correa and Álvaro Pérez. The latter wrote a letter detailing his close friendship with the former president and all the contract awards he had received thanks to the former leader of the Valencian PP. However, the former leader of the PP downplays their importance: “They have no probative value. I have absolute peace of mind knowing that the judges pay no heed to this type of conformity.”
– And do you have any hope of returning to the top of politics? a journalist asked him in front of the national court.
-Yes! The former president responded bluntly.
The former Valencian president has been struggling for years to save his position at the head of the community, but the courts have already made a firm decision. In other trials in which he was not on the bench, judges have found it established that the Generalitat, which he leads, is “rigging” contracts in favor of the belt, or that the PP he leads “irregularly” funds the 2007 campaigns and 2008. Among the charges convicted in other hearings are his secretary-general Ricardo Costa, who told the hearing that Camps knew about and was involved in the irregularities; his vice-president, Víctor Campos – another of his vice-presidents, Juan Cotino, died in court against him –; its regional director Cristina Ibáñez; his general secretary of the parliamentary group, David Serra; its Treasurer Yolanda García; his adviser and President of the Autonomous Chamber, Milagrosa Martínez; and his advisor Rafael Blasco.
The 81 convicted of the belt
In addition to Camps, the National Court indicted another 27 people for this trial, including three former advisers to the People’s Governments of the Generalitat Valenciana (Alicia de Miguel, Luis Rosado and Manuel Cervera). The outcome of this oral hearing will determine whether to increase the number of people sentenced to prison terms for their involvement in the Belt Conspiracy.
According to the EL PAÍS census, the Spanish judicial system has already sentenced 81 people to prison for their involvement in this corruption network, including dozens of officials, advisers and members of the PP. So far, the courts have pursued nine strands of investigation, with cumulative sentences exceeding 600 years in prison. In addition, the Conservative Party was convicted three times for profiting from the conspiracy.