Civil Guard agents raid PSOE headquarters in Madrid on judicial order
The Civil Guard has attended the Socialist Party's headquarters on Calle Ferraz following an order from judge Santiago Pedraz, who is investigating an alleged network dedicated to interfering in judicial processes.
Civil Guard agents raid PSOE headquarters in Madrid on judicial order
The Central Operating Unit of the Civil Guard accessed the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, located on Calle Ferraz in Madrid, on Wednesday. Agents arrived to request papers and digital files following an order issued by magistrate Santiago Pedraz, who is directing proceedings at the National Court.
The investigation, which remains under judicial secrecy, points to an alleged structure that allegedly attempted to obstruct judicial cases that harmed the party and the Government. The judge has named four individuals as under investigation: Santos Cerdán, who held the position of Secretary of Organisation of the PSOE; businessman Javier Pérez Dolset; Gaspar Zarrías, former Councillor of the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía; and lawyer Ismael Oliver.
These four are attributed with a wide list of criminal offences, among them: membership of a criminal organisation, bribery, disclosure of confidential information, incitement to make false statements, defamatory accusation, falsification of business documents, abuse of office, trading in influence and attacks against state bodies.
The party's manager, Ana Fuentes, also appears in the file. She is being examined as a possible collaborator in the aforementioned crimes and, specifically, as an alleged perpetrator of falsity in a mercantile document for having issued non-existent invoices. Two other names that have entered the case are Jacobo Teijelo, a lawyer for Cerdán, and Juan Sánchez Yepes, a member of the armed forces.
The judicial instructor also refers to Juan Manuel Serrano Quintana, former president of Correos, and Juan Francisco Serrano Martínez, an PSOE Member of Parliament. According to the magistrate, there are signs that both provided assistance in specific actions within the criminal scheme, although he warns that more time for investigation is required to clarify their degree of involvement.
In addition to the raid on the Socialist Party headquarters, Civil Guard officials have travelled to the Civil Guard General Directorate, on Vía Guzmán el Bueno, and have inspected the private residences of Zarrías and Cerdán.
These same events have already been the subject of investigation by Madrid judge Arturo Zamarriego. This magistrate maintains that Leire Díez, a former PSOE affiliate, coordinated with Pérez Dolset and broadcaster Pere Rusiñol a continued criminal operation to obtain compromising information on senior officers of the Civil Guard and the Anti-Corruption Prosecution. The purpose, according to Zamarriego, was to invalidate or undermine investigations concerning political and business figures. Given that both proceedings deal with the same facts, it is expected that the Madrid court will refer everything acted upon to the National Court.
Information published by ABC.
Source: ABC