The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the popular accusations led by the PP have requested the Supreme Court to keep former minister José Luis Ábalos and his former advisor Koldo García in provisional prison pending the trial for the alleged irregularities in the acquisition of masks, considering that there continues to be a relevant risk of flight.
In two writings, both the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, and the 'populars' show themselves in favor of the high court dismissing the requests for release filed by both defendants.
Ábalos and Koldo remain interned in Soto del Real prison (Madrid) since November 27, the date on which the Supreme Court investigating judge, Leopoldo Puente, ordered their imprisonment after assessing an "extreme" risk of flight, "the consistent evidence," the high penalties sought, and the proximity of the oral trial.
The representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that at this moment "it is appropriate to reject the requested petition for release, given that the provisional detention communicated and without bail agreed upon is presented today as the rationally most adequate to avert a high risk" that the accused may "evade the action of justice".
"That it derives from the seriousness of the requested penalties, the solidity of the evidence that supports them, the imminence of the oral trial's celebration and the existence, still, of other serious conducts that are imputed to him in another procedure," adds the prosecutor in his brief.
Anti-Corruption demands 24 years in prison for Ábalos and 19 and a half for the former advisor for alleged crimes of membership in a criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery, embezzlement, and use of privileged information. For Aldama, who has admitted the facts attributed to him, a sentence of 7 years in prison is sought.
Flight risk "clearly intensified" and trial calendar
In a similar vein, the PP opposes, in a document to which this agency has also had access, Ábalos and Koldo leaving prison, by sharing the assessment of the "extreme" risk of flight made by the instructor.
"The alleged family and social roots then claimed by the defendants, and now reiterated in their requests for release, in no case allows to ward off said risk, given the imminence of the oral trial and the seriousness of the penalties requested by the prosecutions," argues the popular prosecution.
As he maintains, the flight risk that initially justified the precautionary measure "has been clearly intensified as a result of the most recent procedural events", given that the Chamber has rejected "each and every one" of the preliminary questions raised by the former minister and his former advisor.
The popular accusations promoted by the PP raise for Ábalos and Koldo the request for conviction up to 30 years in prison, while for Aldama they demand the same penalty requested by the Prosecutor's Office.
The Supreme Court has set the start of the trial for next April 7. The oral hearing will last for 13 sessions, which will be held in morning and afternoon sessions.