The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana and former minister Eduardo Zaplana has made use of his right to a last speaking turn before the court of the fourth section of the Valencia Court that is trying him for the alleged crimes of prevarication, bribery and money laundering, among others. Zaplana has defended his innocence and has complained that throughout the procedure, which has lasted eight years, “they have wanted to convey an image and an idea of a criminal group that uses and abuses their personal relationships,” as has said. “Always, from my point of view, I have considered myself a good friend of my friends and, when I have been able to do a favor, which I have always done without any type of compensation,” he added, trying to reinforce the idea that intervention in business facilitated with the alleged illegal commissions was strictly a matter of friendship and not for personal benefit, as the prosecutor claims.
The former regional president has repeated what he already said during the interrogation to which he was subjected at the beginning of the trial: “I have never committed any illegality and I have never had money abroad.” “It was an honor to dedicate myself to public life. Although his work has brought me here, it is not his fault that I am here,” he added.
The trial of the former president of the Generalitat was seen this Thursday for sentencing after more than two months since the twenty sessions began during which the more than a dozen defendants were heard, as well as dozens of witnesses who participated. or they investigated the processing of public tenders for the awarding of ITVs and wind farms in the Valencian Community.
In the last session, the longest since it began on March 22, Juan Francisco García, who was Zaplana’s chief of staff and president of the contracting table that awarded the general director’s companies, also used his turn to have the last word. of Police, Juan Cotino, part of the concessions of the ITV stations. García has corroborated his testimony during the trial, in which he admitted to rigging the contest and charging for it. García, who decided to collaborate with justice, has revealed that he advised the PP leader to do the same to, to some extent, repair the damage. Eduardo Zaplana refused to acknowledge his responsibility.
The Prosecutor’s Office, after interrogating all of them, decided to reduce the sentence requested for Eduardo Zaplana from 19 to 17 years in prison, by withdrawing one of the crimes of falsification of a public document. The prosecutor maintained charges of criminal organization, money laundering, bribery, falsification of commercial documents and prevarication, as well as the request for a fine of 40 million euros.
During this Thursday’s session, the lawyer of Mitsouko Henríquez, Zaplana’s secretary, has requested her acquittal, alleging that there is no evidence that incriminates her in the commission of any more “crime” than that of working as a secretary for more than 30 years. those who are being judged: “Being a secretary seems like a high-risk role that carries criminal responsibility.” “She receives and sends documentation. “She was only doing her job, she was not the secretary of any criminal organization,” said the lawyer who has calculated that in the 161 pages in which the prosecutor describes the plot she is only mentioned in 12 and, in these, in no more than three lines. each one with which the Anti-Corruption accusation against Henríquez is reduced to “at most, a sheet of paper,” according to the lawyer.
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Zaplana’s secretary is accused of belonging to the criminal group that, according to the accusation, Zaplana led with the aim of rigging the awards of ITV services and wind farms, collecting illegal commissions from concessionaires and designing a network of companies to the repatriation of the money to Spain and allocate it to the acquisition of goods. The second of the accusations against the secretary of the former Valencian president focuses precisely on money laundering, something that the lawyer has frontally rejected.
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