The former Murcian president of PP Ramon Luis Valcárcel will be tried starting in September 2027 as alleged author of crimes of embezzlementprevarication and fraud for their participation in the management of the construction and operation of the Escombreras desalination plant, in Cartagena.
The prosecution is asking for 11 years in prison, 20 of total disqualification and another 27 for public office, in addition to compensation of more than 74 million euros.
Section 3 of the Provincial Court of Murcia has set the beginning of the 21 days scheduled for the oral trial of the case known as The Salt in September (15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29), October (4, 5, 6, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27) and November (2, 3, 8 and 9 ), legal sources report.
Some are scheduled to appear 80 witnessesin addition to different expert evidence to clarify the responsibilities of what began as a project launched by five Murcian businessmen under the name of Hidromanagement.
The value of the infrastructure was set at more than 600 million
The main investigation wants to clarify whether the Murcian Government had previously decided to take it on and award it without publicity to companies in the ACS Groupwhose president is Florentino Pérez, for which they signed a contract in 2006. The price of the desalination plant and its associated infrastructure was initially set at 175 million eurosbut in the contractual resolution of June 2012 it exceeded the 600.
One of the clauses of the contract stipulated that the Government should pay the total amount for the construction, rental and operation of the plant for 25 years in case of early termination of the contract, which would reach that higher figure.
For this same case, others will be judged in another oral hearing. 17 investigated and eight companiesamong them, the former Minister of Agriculture who worked with Valcárcel, Antonio Cerda. It is wanted to clarify whether they caused damage to the regional public coffers by converting a private project to build the plant into another supported by the Murcian Government with the creation of the Public Water Entity (EPA) and circumventing the Water and Public Sector Contracts laws.
The objective was to circumvent the Water Law
According to the prosecutor, the objective in creating the EPA was to circumvent the Water Law, which required that urban plans guarantee the supply of water with a favorable report from the Segura Hydrographic Confederationwhich at that time systematically rejected these requests due to their structural scarcity in the basin. The EPA was the one that issued those favorable reports to 26 projects that intended to build 180 million square meters.
In the conclusions of the Special Investigation Commission closed in 2017 in the Murcia Regional Assemblythe opposition (PSOE, Can and Citizens) considered Cerdá and Valcárcel “leaders” of a “plot” hatched to circumvent the Water Law and allow the urban planning “plot.”
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