José Luis Calama is the magistrate of the Audiencia Nacional in charge of investigating the Plus Ultra case.
The judge has summoned as investigated the president of the airline, Julio Martínez Sola, and the CEO, Roberto Roselli, after both modified their version and submitted writings in which they implicate the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the actions that preceded the public rescue of 53 million euros.
The statements will be held on September 7 and 8.
When the Plus Ultra executives will testify
Julio Martínez Sola must appear at 09:00 hours on September 7.
Roberto Roselli is summoned at the same time the following day. Roselli was the financial director of Plus Ultra when the aid granted during the pandemic was processed.
The two executives were already listed as investigated. When they were arrested by the National Police in December 2025, they invoked their right not to testify.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office deemed it necessary to interrogate them again after learning of their new writings.
The change of version of the Plus Ultra leadership
The president of Plus Ultra had publicly denied any favoritism or political interference.
This week, however, Martínez Sola and Roselli submitted writings before the Audiencia Nacional in which they acknowledge that the company hired the consultant Julio Martínez Martínez due to his relationship with Zapatero and with the expectation that he could help in obtaining the rescue.
Both admit that they had no direct knowledge of the specific actions that the former president would have taken before the State Society of Industrial Participations.
Their new version is based on the idea that Plus Ultra assumed it had to hire Martínez Martínez because he had access to Zapatero.
The 1% commission for obtaining the rescue
The investigation analyzes a contract that established a commission equivalent to 1% of the financing obtained.
As the rescue amounted to 53 million euros, the anticipated amount was around 530,000 euros. The document defined that payment as compensation for the services rendered and for the success of the operation before the SEPI.
The Police seized a copy of the contract during the search of Julio Martínez Martínez's home.
To that agreement was added another contract of 5,000 euros per month for advisory services that, according to the consultant's version, had already been provided since May 2020.
The call that compromises the versions
Julio Martínez Sola claims that he spoke by phone with Zapatero on April 30, 2020.
According to his account, he explained to the former president the difficult financial situation of Plus Ultra and the need to access public funds. Martínez Sola states that Zapatero responded that his intervention could be useful and that subsequent communications would be channeled through Julio Martínez Martínez.
Zapatero denies having made arrangements with the SEPI or the Council of Ministers to favor the company.
The statement in September will allow Calama to directly question the executives about that supposed conversation, the signed contracts, and the payments made.
What the Plus Ultra case investigates
The case seeks to determine whether the public bailout was obtained through a structure of influences and whether part of the money ended up being channeled through contracts and commissions.
Plus Ultra received 53 million euros from the Strategic Companies Solvency Support Fund during the pandemic.
The investigation is not limited to verifying whether the airline met the economic requirements. It also examines who intervened in the operation, what services were actually provided, and what the destination of the amounts paid to consultants and related companies was.
What role the investigation attributes to Zapatero
The investigators analyze whether the former president acted as a reference figure within the efforts to achieve the bailout.
Julio Martínez Martínez declared before the judge that Zapatero “set the steps to follow.” The executives of Plus Ultra do not claim to have personally witnessed those actions, but they acknowledge that they hired the consultant because of the relationship he had with the former president of the Government.
Zapatero rejects that interpretation and maintains that he did not speak with officials of the SEPI or the Government about the aid.
The case is in the instruction phase. The statements of the investigated do not constitute proven facts by themselves.
Calama rejects the nullity requested by Zapatero
The judge has rejected the general nullity request submitted by Zapatero's defense.
Calama considers that the request was made outside the legal deadline of 20 days since the defense had material access to the case file. According to his resolution, the deadline ended on June 23 at 3:00 PM and the document was submitted on the 25th.
The magistrate did not assess the substance of the reported violations. He rejected the request as untimely.
The defense is trying to correct that decision by alleging an error in the computation of the access dates to the procedure.
The jewels seized from Zapatero
The Prosecutor's Office has requested an additional report on the jewels seized in the name of the former president.
The objective is to obtain more information about when the pieces were set and to delve into their current market value. Calama had not yet resolved that request when the summons of the executives was published.
The preliminary appraisal released in the procedure placed the set at 1.3 million euros, although the origin and the final valuation are still under investigation.
Who is José Luis Calama
Calama is a magistrate of the National Court and directs the Central Investigating Court that processes the case.
His name has appeared in procedures of great political, economic, and security relevance. In the Plus Ultra case, he has authorized searches, taken statements, analyzed financial documentation, and resolved the appeals presented by the defenses.
His role is not to issue a conviction now, but to determine whether there are sufficient indications to continue the procedure and, when the time comes, propose the opening of a trial or the filing.