Congress withdraws parliamentary immunity from Ábalos and gives free rein to the Supreme Court to investigate him

The Supreme Court may formally investigate the former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos in the case investigating the ‘Koldo case’. This Tuesday, Congress approved the request that removes the parliamentary immunity of the deputy, now in the Mixed Group, and he will foreseeably be called to testify as a defendant in the coming weeks. The vote, which took place behind closed doors in the Plenary, was unanimous.

Last month, the Supreme Court launched the machinery to formally investigate the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE. On December 18, he submitted a request to the Lower House to suspend his immunity and be able to investigate him after finding “sufficient indications” of the possible commission of at least four crimes: integration into a criminal organization, influence peddling, bribery and embezzlement.

Congress took the first step to accept the request last week, in a unanimous decision by the Commission on the Statute of Deputies. Ábalos went to that commission with a list of allegations that his colleagues studied for a few hours, although the PSOE had already decided its position some time ago.

“I am going to continue defending my innocence and my rights, which cannot be taken away: I am completely convinced of my innocence as well as of the political hunt of which I am not the object, the objective is the Government,” Ábalos told the press after presenting the writing. “I am in favor of protecting the function of the deputy; The capacity is not a privilege but a guarantee to calmly exercise the function of deputy,” he insisted.

Finally, this Wednesday the Lower House has decided to accept the Supreme Court’s request with XX votes in favor, XX.

The instructor of the ‘Koldo case’ in the high court, Leopoldo Puente, understands that there are “sufficient elements” to consider that Ábalos was able to take advantage of his status as minister to determine “the awarding of several contracts of the public administration or the institutional public sector. with private companies” in exchange for “certain economic benefits.” It is based, for this, on the statement that the former minister gave voluntarily last week, as well as the interrogations of his former advisor Koldo García and the alleged achiever of the plot, Víctor de Aldama; the documents provided by them and the results of the searches and telephone taps authorized during the investigation initiated at the National Court.