The fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has decided to maintain the provisional freedom of the former president of the Generalitat Valenciana and former minister with the PP Eduardo Zaplana, convicted of the ITV plot in the Erial case, as it did not appreciate the risk of flight.
Zaplana was sentenced to 10 years and five months in prison for the Erial case, in a sentence that can be appealed before the Supreme Court. However, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested a glimpse to assess his entry into prison until the High Court rules.
The viewing was held last Thursday and, in it, Anti-Corruption requested immediate entry into the Zaplana prison to prevent him from escaping, as did José María Tabares, convicted in the Ivex case; while his defense objected, alleging that this possibility did not exist due to his illness and family roots: “There is not the slightest indication of risk. He has his house, his family, his livelihood, the pension that is deposited into an account, he has everything in Spain,” he said.
For his part, Zaplana spoke and stated that he had no intention of fleeing the country: “I am not in the mood to flee,” he stressed. Furthermore, he stressed that if Tabares had a judicial procedure it was precisely because the Generalitat that he presided over filed a complaint.
The court has agreed to provisionally release Zaplana without bail with the imposition of some precautionary measures such as the withdrawal of his passport, the prohibition of leaving the national territory and the monthly appearance in court, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV).
The Court has adopted this decision as it does not appreciate the risk of flight since, until now, the ‘former president’ has not carried out any act aimed at evading the action of Justice, he has appeared in all the trial sessions and has responded to any judicial appeal.
serious crimes
The representative of the public ministry explained during the hearing before the court that Zaplana’s procedural situation has changed after the conviction, which recognizes that “these are serious crimes, associated with political corruption in the exercise of his public functions.” . “The risk of flight increases not only because of the sentence imposed, which is a motivation to evade justice, but also because of their access to economic means,” he warned.
In that sense, he insisted that, according to the ruling, it was “proven” that Zaplana “has access to financial products and assets abroad that he has not made available to the Spanish authorities.” Furthermore, he recalled that the former general director of the Valencian Export Institute (IVEX), José María Tabares, who was a person “under the orders” of Zaplana, fled to Japan, a country in which there is no extradition agreement with Spain. .
Likewise, he rejected the medical report prepared by the court’s forensic experts in 2019 that the defense presented to oppose this precautionary measure. “Fortunately Zaplana has attended the trial, we understand that his health problem is not risky and he has developed a completely normal life,” he replied.
For all this, he requested that he be placed in provisional prison because Zaplana, “thanks to his economic conditions, can evade the action of Justice, and continue his medical treatment in first world countries, and given the ten-year sentence that has been imposed on him “There is a possibility of leakage, it has to be measured.”
On the other hand, Zaplana’s lawyer stressed that his client is “innocent” until there is a final sentence and that presumption of innocence must be respected and stressed in this regard that he does not comply with the “legitimate purposes” established by law to agree to this measure. precautionary
Thus, he pointed out that during all this time, from the beginning of the case until appearing at the hearing, he has not fled, which showed that “he has no intention of evading justice”, nor is there the possibility of hiding evidence. In addition, he pointed out that it was unconstitutional to request his admission due to social alarm and highlighted that the conviction for the crimes, although of “a certain severity”, as it is not final, could entail lesser penalties.
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