Patricia Uriz, who was the partner of former ministerial advisor Koldo García, has appeared as a witness before the Supreme Court and has assured that the WhatsApp messages in which investigators interpret references to money as "chistorras" (sausages), "soles" (suns/currency), and "lechugas" (lettuces) "do not fit" with her usual way of writing. Furthermore, she has stressed that the expenses that the PSOE reimbursed to her ex-husband "were always in cash".
Uriz intervened this Monday in the trial for the alleged irregularities in the contracting of masks during the pandemic, in which the former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos, García himself, and the businessman Víctor de Aldama sit on the bench.
The witness has explained that "there has to be something before or after" the messages collected in a report by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, and has recalled that, when both worked in the Ministry, her ex-partner could send her "200 messages in a single day".
He added that Koldo used two phones and that "sometimes, he wrote on one, then he wrote on the other," which made it "a bit complicated to follow the conversations."
"Because the gentlemen of the UCO have said that they were on my mobile. Otherwise, I would have thought no, that I could not have written that, because they don't fit with my way of writing and expressing myself," he has stated before the court.
During the hearing, Uriz has chosen to answer only the questions of her lawyer —who also represents Koldo's defense—, alleging that she is under investigation in the Audiencia Nacional within the framework of the "Koldo case".
Management of Ábalos's personal expenses
Regarding José Luis Ábalos' private expenses, the witness has indicated that both she and Koldo handled those matters due to the former minister's bad relationship with his ex-partner, and that this dynamic already existed before Aldama came into play.
According to what he has related, he would go "to buy tobacco", "books" or "he would take his clothes to the dry cleaner's" for the former minister. He also paid for train and plane tickets, and has specified that "normally, Ábalos used to say that, within what fit", he should choose "the most economical options".
To separate the expenses attributable to the Ministry from those that corresponded to the PSOE, she has explained that her ex-husband used "two envelopes".
"There were times when there were ministry trips in which Ábalos carried out duties as organization secretary. Then, Koldo had to differentiate that to be able to pass the ticket to whoever had to pay it," he indicated.
Uriz has insisted that from the socialist headquarters on Ferraz street it was paid "always in cash", while in the Ministry "some paid by transfer and some gave it in cash".
Refunds of the PSOE and ticket control
The witness has detailed that, to claim the expenses from the PSOE, "all the tickets were collected and an Excel sheet was made with the date, the place and the amount, and it was passed on to Ferraz".
He explained that the socialists "only paid if they had the tickets" or "a justification." As an example, he recounted that Koldo lost a receipt "and did not get paid for it because Ferraz was very rigid."
She has assured that "she did not see" what type of banknotes were introduced into the envelopes with the reimbursements, which were delivered "in closed envelopes", although she has admitted that on occasions it was she who collected the amounts corresponding to Ábalos and his former advisor "if they were not there".
"I gave the envelope to Koldo and Ábalos's, normally, I left it with the secretary he had in the Ministry. And she is the one who deposited it in the office," he specified.
Relationship with Aldama and face mask contracts
Asked by her lawyer, De la Hoz, about whether she at any time received any "direct payment" from Aldama, she has denied it. She has admitted that she heard her then-husband speak of him "as someone who had asked him for help," but she has clarified that "normally she did not ask him about Ministry matters."
In the same vein, he has denied that Koldo commented anything to him about Soluciones de Gestión, the company linked to Aldama, although he did hear him discuss matters related to masks.
"I heard him talking on the phone and he was talking about masks, whether they were held, whether they were not held, whether they were chartered, whether they were coming, whether they were not coming, because obviously it was an important issue and he wanted the masks to arrive here as soon as possible to save lives," he recounted.
Likewise, he has indicated that he saw "a couple of times" Jéssica Rodríguez, Ábalos's ex-partner. He has also said that he ran into "once" Claudia Montes, a woman linked to the former minister, but has denied having falsified her resume, as De la Hoz has suggested to him.
Income of the couple and patrimonial increase
At the request of her lawyer, Uriz has detailed that, during the period in which both worked in the Ministry, the couple's joint annual income exceeded 125,000 euros, adding the two salaries and a pension that Koldo receives.
The president of the court, magistrate Andrés Martínez Arrieta, has questioned the relevance of this point in relation to the facts on trial. "I am trying to explain that my client's supposedly unjustified asset increase has a very clear explanation," the lawyer replied.