The National Court tribunal prosecuting 'Operation Kitchen' has decided not to stop the oral hearing, thus disregarding the request for suspension made by several defenses due to alleged failures in the investigation phase. Likewise, it has rejected the request from the PSOE, which acts as a popular prosecution, to charge the former general secretary of the PP María Dolores de Cospedal and her ex-husband, the businessman Ignacio López del Hierro.
The National Court has resumed this Tuesday the trial for operation 'Kitchen', the alleged device designed from the top of the Ministry of Interior of Mariano Rajoy's Executive to steal compromising documentation from the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas that could harm party officials. In the dock are, among others, the former Minister of Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz, the former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez, the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and other high-ranking police officers.
In line with the Public Prosecutor's Office's stance, the magistrates have rejected the preliminary questions raised by the defenses, which demanded the suspension of the trial alleging, among other arguments, the alleged lack of competence of the Audiencia Nacional to judge these facts, the "unjustified" extension of the summary secrecy or the absence, in their view, of a link between the 'Kitchen' piece and the 'Tándem case', name by which the macro-case surrounding Villarejo is known.
The court has also dismissed the petition for annulment of the recordings attributed to Villarejo that would have originated the judicial investigation. The accused argued that those audios were obtained illicitly and that their authenticity could not be proven, but the judges have opted to keep them in the case.
Likewise, the magistrate has rejected stopping the oral trial to proceed with the indictment of Cospedal and López del Hierro, as requested by the PSOE's lawyer. Both, who are called to testify as witnesses, came to appear as investigated during the investigation, but the procedure was dismissed for them in 2021 and that decision remains.