The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has asked to sentence former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz to 15 years in prison for “Operation Kitchen”, an alleged parapolice operation to spy on former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas and steal the sensitive information he had on the PP, while he has concerned a sentence of 19 years in prison for the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo.
In their indictment, to which Europa Press has accessed, prosecutors Cesar de Rivas and Miguel Serrano are also interested in a 33-year disqualification for the former minister for the crimes of cover-up, embezzlement and crimes against privacy.
On the other hand, the Public Ministry requests 15 years in prison for the former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez and for the former deputy operational director (DAO) of the National Police Eugenio Pino.
Separate piece of ‘Tandem’
It was on April 20 when the Criminal Chamber of the National Court ratified the judge’s decision to end the investigation by rejecting all requests, including that of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, for the instructor to delve into the so-called political plot. .
The popular evidence exerted by the PSOE and Podemos had already presented their writings, respectively demanding a sentence of 47 years and 41 years in prison for Fernández Díaz, while the Bárcenas -the former treasurer, his wife and his son- have asked for more 40 years in prison for the former Minister of the Interior.
From this front, only the Anti-Corruption indictment is pending, which had been delayed for a procedural reason –that all of the investigation should be accessible on the digital platform– and another substantive: to see how it could affect this separate piece the reform of the crime of embezzlement.
Another of the factors that hovered over this piece number 7 were the requests from PSOE and Podemos to reopen ‘Kitchen’ after ‘El País’ revealed the audio of a conversation held in January 2013 between the former general secretary of the PP María Dolores de Cospedal and Villarejo in which she asked him to “stop” the matter of Bárcenas’ “little notebook”, expressing her concern that the former treasurer’s papers were in the possession of journalists.
García Castellón ruled it out on November 30, considering that the support for the accusation against Cospedal was reduced “almost nuclear to a few minutes of an audio cut of which not only its origin is unknown, but in any circumstance and context “. But the PSOE went back to the Criminal Chamber, in a petition supported by Anti-Corruption and the State Attorney’s Office.
It should be remembered that the judicial investigation placed Fernandez Díaz as the alleged ‘brain’ of the ‘Kitchen’, prosecuting him along with Martínez and Villarejo. The former deputy operational director (DAO) of the National Police Eugenio Pino; former police commanders Enrique García Castaño, Marcelino Martín Blas, Andrés Gómez Gordo, José Luis Olivera, José Ángel Fuentes Gago and Bonifacio Díez Sevillano; and the ex-driver of the Bárcenas Sergio Ríos complete the list of accused.
