Former Spanish transport minister Ábalos sentenced to 24 years in prison in mask contract corruption case
Spain's Supreme Court Criminal Chamber has imposed a 24-year prison sentence on former transport minister José Luis Ábalos for corruption offences linked to the acquisition of medical supplies during the health crisis.
Former Spanish transport minister Ábalos sentenced to 24 years in prison in mask contract corruption case
Spain's Supreme Court Criminal Chamber has imposed a 24-year prison sentence on former transport minister José Luis Ábalos for corruption offences linked to the acquisition of medical supplies during the health crisis, according to reporting by AFP news agency via Seznam Zprávy (https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/zahranicni-spanelsky-soud-ulozil-exministru-dopravy-abalosovi-24-let-za-korupci-309095).
The scheme investigated centred on the irregular award of contracts for the purchase of millions of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prosecution argued that the Socialist politician received numerous benefits in exchange for facilitating these contracts: from monthly bonuses that increased his official remuneration, to payment for family trips, gifts and favours for various people with whom he maintained personal relationships, including the cost of paid sexual services.
The sentence, handed down unanimously by the judges, also reached Koldo García, Ábalos's former direct collaborator, who was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment for membership of a criminal organisation, together with embezzlement, bribery and abuse of influence. Both defendants had denied throughout the oral hearing the charges against them, and had already been held in provisional detention for several months.
Businessman Víctor de Aldama, owner of the companies that benefited from the protective material sale transaction, was also sentenced to four and a half years' deprivation of liberty. However, the commencement of his sentence was deferred owing to the cooperation he provided to the courts during the investigation. During his testimony, de Aldama pointed directly at the head of government, Pedro Sánchez, identifying him as the leader of an alleged criminal network, and asserted that the ruling party would have benefited from illegal financing stemming from these commissions. The president has firmly denied these claims.
The court ruling established that the three defendants constituted an unlawful association with divided functions, responsible for serious corrupt offences.
Ábalos had been one of the architects of Sánchez's rise to the general secretariat of the PSOE and the presidency of the government, holding between 2017 and 2021 the position of organisational secretary of the party, the post of greatest internal weight. The eruption of this scandal triggered a political earthquake within the progressive coalition, which had made honesty one of its policy cornerstones. The crisis also affected Santos Cerdán, who succeeded the convicted minister in the party's governing body.
Sánchez assumed PSOE leadership in the summer of 2017 and reached the Palacio de La Moncloa a year later, following the fall of Mariano Rajoy's executive (PP) as a result of a major corruption scandal. The current prime minister has repeatedly stated his lack of knowledge about the investigated facts and has defended the financial integrity of his party. From the right, both the PP and Vox maintain a political offensive demanding his resignation and the calling of early elections, demands which the Socialist has flatly rejected.
The legal situation surrounding the president is further complicated by other pending cases: his brother David Sánchez awaits a ruling in a procedure for abuse of influence; last Saturday the court ordered the prosecution of his spouse, Begoña Gómez, for alleged corruption offences, imposing a ban on her leaving national territory; and his former mentor, former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is also being investigated for alleged abuse of influence. At the end of May, judicial officers searched the PSOE's federal headquarters in Madrid as part of a separate investigation looking into the existence of an alleged cell tasked with obstructing investigations into alleged crimes committed by Socialist leaders and government officials.
Source: Google News CZ — Crime (cs)