Guillermo Bárcenas, son of the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, declared this Monday before the National Court (AN) tribunal that, in his opinion, there was an "order" to "make his father's life impossible" during the time he remained imprisoned in Soto del Real prison (Madrid). He links this supposed instruction to the government of Mariano Rajoy, since, as he has emphasized, "they are institutions that depend on the Government."
The testimony has taken place in the trial for 'Operation Kitchen', the alleged parapolice device launched in 2013 from the Ministry of the Interior with the aim of stealing documentation from the former treasurer about 'popular' leaders, in full judicial investigation into the alleged B accounting of the party.
"My father's first eighteen months in prison were very hard. (...) They made his life impossible in jail. I think it was an order at the time. Of course, in the end, they are institutions that depend on the Government," he stated before the court.
Bárcenas' son has also explained that he lost confidence in his father's driver, Sergio Ríos —prosecuted in this case for allegedly being recruited as an informant by the plot—, following the assault that he and his mother suffered at their home at the hands of a false priest, an event that occurred in 2013.
"Everything smelled pretty bad to us from the first moment. (...) I, when I was holding this gentleman (the fake priest), he appeared very quickly (the driver). It's my interpretation, but I noticed his face was a little out of sorts, more from surprise than fright," he stated in court.
The alleged recordings and the role of Rajoy and Arenas
Guillermo Bárcenas has likewise recalled that his father told him about the existence of recordings that the former treasurer allegedly made of Mariano Rajoy and the current senator and former PP leader Javier Arenas regarding the party's B accounting, as well as the account that the former President of the Government, always according to his father's version, allegedly destroyed an envelope with the remainder of the party's B fund.
"I asked him. He told me about some recordings in which he went up to Mariano Rajoy's office in the presence of Arenas. I don't remember the detail, but it was something about the B accounting, about a remainder that had been left," he specified before the magistrates.
The witness added that he also had the impression of being watched, in line with what his mother, Rosalía Iglesias, already stated in her own testimony at the trial. "I even felt it when I was driving alone in the car," he recounted.
"I remember going in the car and seeing motorcycles, or rather, motorcyclists, who at first we always thought were journalists, because at that time I think we were the most famous family in Spain, but well, my mother and I did notice that they were following us, that they had a camera on their helmet," he added, alluding to those alleged pursuits.