The State Attorney General, Alvaro Garcia Ortizhas issued a decree this Wednesday establishing that the competence to hear the Negreira case passes to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, as it is crimes related to corruption of special importance.
According to the complaint filed by the Provincial Prosecutor of Barcelona, for which the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona has already opened proceedings, although it has not admitted it for processing, the facts denounced could constitute a continued crime of corruption in business in the sports field, a continued crime of unfair administration or a continued crime of misappropriation, as well as a continued crime of falsifying a commercial document.
From now on, it will be this Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office that leads the investigation of the case as the attorney general has decided based on the importance that he grants to the case in which the payment by Barça of €1.7 million to the one who was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees José Maria Enríguez Negreira.
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The judge Silvia Lopez Mejias, who acts as support magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelonamust decide in the next few days whether or not to admit the complaint from the Barcelona prosecutor’s office that is directed against the former arbitration leader, the former presidents of Barça, Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeuthe ex-executives of the club, Óscar Grau and Albert Solerand the same Barcelona entity, to which the crimes of corruption between individuals, unfair administration and false commercial document for the use of invoices for services not really provided are attributed.
Request for appearances
At the moment, the League and the referee have requested their appearance in the procedure Xavier Estrada Fernandez (which has already deposited the 3,000 euros requested as bail by the court) and have announced that Real Madrid and the Higher Sports Council (CSD) will also raise it. Witnesses requested by the prosecution include: former coaches of FC Barcelona Luis Enrique Martínez y ernesto valverde to explain if they were aware of the alleged reports on the arbitrators prepared by Negreira.