The magistrate of the Audiencia Nacional Santiago Pedraz has summoned the president of the PSOE, Cristina Narbona, to testify this Friday as a witness, within the investigation of the 'Leire Díez case'. The case analyzes an alleged operation to stop or divert judicial proceedings affecting the Government and the PSOE, which would have been promoted by the former Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán and the former socialist militant Leire Díez.
Through a provision to which Europa Press had access, the judge accepted the request of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office for Narbona to appear as a witness. Her testimony is scheduled for this Friday at 10:00 AM.
Pedraz has also summoned as witnesses the Civil Guard commander Rubén Villalba, the businessman Claudio Rivas, and Antonio José García Cabrera, lawyer for the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo.
In one of the reports incorporated into the 'Leire Díez case' file, the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard recorded the content of a WhatsApp conversation between Díez and Narbona, held on April 24, 2024.
"Leire spoke of 'redirecting' attacks on the president, giving 'qualified help' and turning the matter 'upside down like a sock'. In this same conversation, Narbona made reference to the fact that 'you had told Santos about these matters the other day'," the agents reported.
After the first audio recordings about Leire Díez's meetings were released a few months ago, Narbona acknowledged that she had met her "a long time ago in Santander," where the former militant worked in the party's communication department in Cantabria, and denied any involvement in illicit activities.
More testimonies in the 'Leire Díez case'
The appearance of Commander Villalba is scheduled for this Tuesday, investigated in the 'Koldo case' for allegedly providing disposable phones to the alleged network.
Then Francisco Ortega will testify, identified as having arranged meetings between Villalba and Díez. This same Tuesday, Patricia Isabel Espinar, related to the digital media 'Crónica Libre', is summoned as a witness, just like Díez.
Wednesday will be the turn of García Cabrera, summoned after the UCO incorporated into its reports conversations of the lawyer in which Díez would have allegedly offered Villarejo, investigated in the 'Tándem' macro-case, a possible agreement with the Prosecutor's Office in exchange for data on politicians, businessmen, and police commanders.
Later, the businessman Joaquín Parra will testify, and on Thursday, Claudio Rivas will do so, whose company Villafuel is the epicenter of the so-called 'hydrocarbons case', along with businessmen Antonio Rodríguez and Luis Caramés.
In addition to Narbona, Rafael Salvador, former head of the National Police Unit attached to the Seville courts, is summoned on Friday. According to a UCO report, the former socialist militant allegedly met with him on two occasions to obtain "information that could compromise" Judge Mercedes Alaya, the investigating judge of the 'ERE case' and who reopened the 'Aználcollar case', in which the former president of SEPI Vicente Fernández, also charged in the 'Leire Díez case', was prosecuted and later acquitted.
That same Friday, José Norberto Uzal, former general director of Hafesa Energía, who was sentenced in November to 19 and a half years in prison for a macro-fraud linked to the hydrocarbons sector, will close the round of witnesses.