Camps praises the court in his last word and his lawyer criticizes the “psychopathological obsession” of the Prosecutor’s Office

Camps, 61, briefly used his last word. He wanted to “thank you for this opportunity to thank your honors and the officials of this house for the extraordinary work of these very complicated months” and, “as a citizen,” he said, to be able to defend yourself against the accusations and remain at the disposal of the National audience.

Pablo Delgado, the former president’s lawyer between 2003 and 2011, was previously more forceful, who has requested the acquittal of his client in his report of conclusions. He did so amid harsh criticism of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which demands one year in prison for the defendant for a crime of influence peddling and six years of disqualification for alleged prevarication.

Delgado, who began by asking the court for forgiveness for his outbursts in the trial, immediately afterwards accused the two prosecutors in the case of undertaking a “media trial” against Camps for 14 years that reached “psychopathological obsession.”

Camps, for whom the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office initially requested two years and six months in prison by including a crime of fraud, has been the central figure despite not being the defendant with a greater request for a sentence. “We ask for justice,” his lawyer claimed this Thursday. During his presentation, he responded to the report of conclusions presented on Monday by prosecutors Concepción Nicolás and Pilar Santamaría for their “overflowing interest” in going against their client.

Along these lines, the lawyer criticized the “lack of definition of the dates and events” which, in his opinion, “are the fair and the roulette of fortune of the Prosecutor’s Office”, which he has accused of making “unfounded assertions.” Ironically, he also regretted that the Public Ministry assured that “all the subjects” of Camps “subjugate themselves and do what he says.” “We are facing induction by acclamation, because since he was the president we all did what we thought he wanted or that he might like,” he reproached.

In his opinion, the only thing that exists is an “obvious need to justify something” that has been exposed with an “unusual ferocity.” «They have told us that we have received gifts… to generate atmosphere. “That has not been proven,” he said. Delgado has also referred to Camps’ invitation to the head of Orange Market (subsidiary of the Correa Group in Valencia), Álvaro Pérez ‘El Bigotes’, to travel to the city. «It comes from our soul to invite (…) Life is good there. I understand that that doesn’t work for those from Cuenca and Teruel,” the lawyer compared.

“An honest and honest guy”

Thus, he insisted that Camps “has nothing to do with Pérez’s arrival” to the Valencian Community. “It is obvious. But there are things that are distorted or that attempts have been made in the conformities to bring in as if they were an essential element, when they had nothing to do with the indictment,” he criticized. Finally, he has described Camps as an “honest guy” and “honest man.” “That, perhaps, is not true for others who are friends of Mr. Pérez,” he concluded.

On Monday, prosecutors Nicolás and Santamaría accused Camps of being the first senior official “parasitized” by the corrupt ‘Gürtel’ network. «They were installed (in the regional institutions) through a patient zero, which is Camps. He offered them to go to Valencia. “There is abundant, solid and conclusive evidence,” they noted.

For nearly four hours, they described an illegal structure that “landed” in the Valencian administration thanks, according to their thesis, to the camaraderie between the strong man of ‘Gürtel’ in the region, Álvaro Pérez, and the highest regional authority, Francisco Camps. Without their “close” relationship, they stressed, it is not understood that the plot would go so far and get awards rigged in their favor: among others, those related to the work for the Fitur tourism fair in 2009.