2023-07-31 19:34:05
The National Court has rejected this Monday the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to imprison the former commissioner Villarejo. The magistrates of the Fourth Section of the Criminal Chamber have released him and his partner Rafael Redondo on provisional release with precautionary measures.
The magistrates impose on the convicted persons the obligation to appear in the court of their domicile every fortnight and before the Court when required. They are also prohibited from leaving the national territory, their passports are withdrawn and they are forced to report any change of address.
The room, unlike the Prosecutor’s Office, does not consider that there is a risk of flight. They argue that he was already in prison and that he has always responded to judicial appeals and attended sessions. Regarding the high sentence, in the Court they consider that the sentence responds to an addition to the sentences imposed for crimes of concealment and disclosure of secrets and documentary falsification.
In the morning, Anticorruption requested entry into prison, objecting that there was a risk of flight, that he was facing a high sentence and that he had many pending trials. The Public Ministry had also requested the entry of his partner Rafael Redondo into prison, sentenced to 13 years in prison within the macro-espionage case in which he allegedly commissioned, together with Villarejo, illegal work using police means at his disposal. The Criminal Chamber of the National Court, finally, has opted to release them.
Commissioner Villarejo, for his part, assured, at the entrance to the National Court, that he did not expect to be treated particularly well in prison if “the deep state triumphed” and announced that he would defend himself to the end. Villarejo has made himself available to justice: “I have had the whole weekend to flee”, he has expressed. When he left, he reiterated his willingness to collaborate: “I am not going to run away.” “While I’m out I can defend myself better”, he has sentenced.
Villarejo, despite the circumstances, continued to believe in justice and appreciated the coherence of the court: “I am very calm for the court which, within the severity of the sentences, has been correct and has assessed the reality of my situation”, he commented. . The commissioner also trusted that the Prosecutor’s Office intended to violate his right of defense. And about the feelings he had in this situation, he was calm: “I was not afraid of this situation, I brought the bag ready to go to prison.”
In the event that justice had ruled prison for him, it would not be the first time that Villarejo would be behind bars. The commissioner spent more than three years in provisional detention in the Estremera prison, specifically in the module for State Security Forces and Corps. In March 2021, the Criminal Chamber decided to release him after verifying that the investigation was lengthening and that he could not have more time in prison on a provisional basis.
The hearing was to be held in September, but finally, the Court formed by Ángela Murillo, Carmen Paloma González and Fermín Echarri has decided that it should be held this Monday, the last day of July, with the aim of resolving the petition that Anticorruption made regarding the precautionary measures.
Last week the first of the sentences condemning Villarejo was published. The opinion, of 351 pages, considered that he could not be convicted of bribery, because the work that Villarejo did “was not carried out in the exercise of his position nor was it related to his public activities.”
27 people have been tried in the plot, 16 of them have been acquitted. The case of Villarejo’s wife, Gemma Alcalá, and her son, José Manuel Villarejo Gil, stands out. The sentence for this first sentence contemplated 19 years in prison for Villarejo, but effective compliance would be less than 12 years. Therefore, he could only be 6 years and the 3 and 4 months that he was already in provisional prison would have to be subtracted.
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