2023-05-26 09:01:06
The head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 4 of Vera (Almería) has provisionally released one of the seven detainees this Wednesday in the alleged plot to buy votes by mail in the municipality of Mojácar (Almería) after the intervention of the Civil Guard and the UCO, which also gave rise to dozens of searches and three investigated.
The Mojácar PSOE denounced the PP for “preparing” votes by mail a week before the arrest of two candidates
Further
Judicial sources have confirmed that the first of those arrested who has appeared before the judge has been released with charges investigated for an alleged crime of electoral fraud under the obligation to appear in court each time he is summoned in the framework of the investigation.
Thus, it is expected that during the day of this Friday the rest of the detainees and investigated will be made available to the judicial authority, among them the ‘number 2’ and ‘number 5’ of the PSOE list for the local elections on 28 May, Francisco Bartolomé Flores Torres and Cristóbal Vizcaíno González, respectively, who attended the elections for the first time under the socialist acronym.
tapped phones
The judge investigating the alleged purchase of votes in Mojácar (Almería) authorized the intervention of the telephone of at least one of the seven detainees by agents of the UCO of the Civil Guard; Specifically, that of Cristóbal Vizcaíno, who appears as an independent on the PSOE list and appears directly indicated by name and surname in the complaint filed on April 14 by the Mojaquera mayoress, Rosa María Cano (PP), and that has been the germ of the operation.
Sources of the case have indicated that several people have gone this Thursday to the premises of the Local Police of Vera (Almería), where the UCO has established which is its center of operations, to give testimony as witnesses as a result of the revelations obtained by the investigators from the wiretaps and from the documentation seized in the ten house searches carried out.
A good part of the investigations have been oriented towards clarifying the contacts that during these weeks the main suspects have maintained with residents of the municipality, sometimes also accompanied by militants or socialist sympathizers, in order to determine if the issuance of votes by mail was conditioned on profit change.
“Clear signs”
The proceedings, which are kept secret although the investigating judge is expected to revoke this decision in the next few hours, have lasted for a month in which numerous procedures have been carried out to verify whether or not electoral fraud is taking place in this municipality. and that they have collected “clear evidence.”
The complaint signed by Rosa María Cano, who is running in these local elections as number 2 of the PP and does not repeat running for mayor’s office again, indicates that she would have been aware of the facts that are now being prosecuted through various residents of the town.
The alleged plot dismantled by the Civil Guard in Mojácar, with seven detainees and three more people investigated, tried to capture votes by mail among citizens of Latin American origin, according to data that have emerged from the operation carried out by the Central Operating Unit (UCO). of the Civil Guard.
money or employment
Among the detainees, in addition to Francisco Bartolomé Flores — number 2 on the PSOE list and son of a former mayor and former socialist senator — and Cristóbal Vizcaíno, there are six people of Spanish nationality, while there are also citizens born in Paraguay, Colombia and Ecuador, which would have acted as mediators.
In the records, the researchers have seized votes by mail and also census lists in which the names of certain citizens were marked, within the material that is now being analyzed by the agents of the Armed Institute. At the moment, no new arrests or charges are foreseen, although it will be the statements and the study of the seized documentation that will determine the new steps to follow in the investigation.
According to case sources, those involved in the plot would have been offering amounts of around 100 euros, although in some cases the figure would rise to 200 euros, aimed at people with low purchasing power, including mainly citizens of Latin American origin. There are also indications that point to other commitments in exchange for the vote, such as providing them with a job after the municipal elections.
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