The judge annuls the imputation of the Andalusian counselor Carmen Crespo after citing her by mistake

The judge investigating the alleged b-box of the Popular Party in Almería will not finally call the Minister of Agriculture of the Junta de Andalucía, Carmen Crespo, to declare as investigated, after this Wednesday she has issued an order in which she cancels both her summons as investigated. In a public note, the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) alleges that Crespo “was summoned for an error.” The head of the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Almería Ana Belén Vico has reversed her claim for the status of gauging the policy, which implies that only the TSJA could investigate her, as confirmed by this institution itself. Vico will now continue his investigations in the case and if he considers that there are still reasons to impute Crespo, he will have to refer the case to the TSJA or summon him to testify voluntarily, so it would be up to the counselor herself to attend or not.

Crespo had been called to testify, along with 19 other people, for their alleged involvement in an illegal financing scheme, linked to the payment of commissions by the construction company Hispano Almería, SA to Almería city councils that were governed by the PP, according to the order signed on December 21 to which this medium had access. The case has been investigated since 2014 and the leg that affects Crespo is linked to his possible intervention in a subsidy to the La Mojonera council – its mayor is also charged – when he was president of the Association of Tourism Promoters of Poniente (between 2009 and 2011) and mayor of Adra. According to the investigation carried out by the UDEF, Crespo would have managed the aid against the criteria of the Intervention.

Crespo had been called to testify as being investigated on April 8, despite the fact that since she was measured by her status as a regional deputy, only the TSJA could investigate her. Eight days after Judge Vico issued the order in which she intended to summon the counselor, she has had to acknowledge her mistake and take a step back, which entails the annulment of both her investigation and her summons. However, that does not imply the end of the investigations. Vico will continue to investigate the case and will be able to call the rest of the investigated or practice the procedures that it deems appropriate. If in this process he ends up finding sufficient evidence of a crime against Crespo, he will have to submit a reasoned statement to the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJA so that it is the one that takes the matter, as explained by sources from the TSJA.

Another option would be for the counselor herself to declare of her own free will in the Almeria court in which the case is being investigated, as stated in article 118 bis of the Criminal Procedure Law in the case of graduates. Crespo has once again assured this Wednesday that he is “very calm” and that he does not know both the judicial order and the ruling that now renders it without effect. “I have always acted in accordance with the law,” he assured the media. These past days, sources around the counselor have confirmed that, when she was president of the Association of Tourism Promoters of Poniente, in 2009 she signed the action plan for the construction of a Museum of Agriculture in La Mojonera. However, they point out that when the unfavorable reports began to be issued it was from 2011, at which time she was no longer president, after having also left the mayor’s office of Adra.

The possible imputation of Crespo, advanced by EL PAÍS, has caused an important political dust in Andalusia in recent days. Parties such as United We Can and Vox even asked Moreno to remove his counselor. For its part, the PSOE limited itself to asking the Chairman of the Board for explanations. On the other side, the Andalusian PP has covered the counselor. The coordinator of the Andalusian PP has assured this morning, before the judge’s ruling was known, that they are “absolutely wrong facts in which she has not participated.”

Before coming to her position as councilor of the Board, Crespo was mayor of Adra, between 2003 and 2011. In 2009, as president of the Association of Tourism Promoters of Poniente, she signed the agreement with the City Council of La Mojonera for the construction of the Museum of Agriculture. But its construction was delayed two years, supposedly because it had given priority to other projects, as justified by Mayor Cara. The construction was awarded to a joint venture in which Hispano Almería was located. Already in 2012, the auditor warned about unjustified payments, although his notes of objection do not appear in the justification file for the subsidy. The UDEF also determined in its investigation that the PP of Almería financed its campaigns for the 2003 municipal and 2008 regional campaigns with illegal commissions from the same construction company Hispano Almería.

The macrocause is divided into separate pieces linked to the municipalities that were the epicenter of the alleged illegal financing and includes up to 20 defendants, between PP politicians and those responsible for the construction company. Against all of them, accumulates a rosary of alleged crimes against the Public Treasury, money laundering, embezzlement, prevarication, bribery, influence peddling, prohibited negotiations with authorities or officials and criminal organization and group. The same investigating judge Number 3 of Almería already charged the secretary, a mayor and the former inspector of Roquetas de Mar 15 days ago, whose mayor for 26 years, Gabriel Amat, is honorary president of the PP of Almería and a member of the new Andalusian PP executive and has been in the spotlight of irregularities, although he has never been listed as a defendant. Different is the case of Cara, called to testify as a defendant in 2015, but who did not appear in court. However, the former mayor was appointed president of the Junta’s Agrarian Research and Training Institute (Ifapa), at the proposal of Crespo, until his dismissal in January of this year.