The court of the National Court that sentenced José Manuel Villarejo to 19 years in prison for three of his private assignments has agreed to release the retired commissioner with precautionary measures against the criteria of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, who had requested his entry into the jail.
In a car, collected by Europa Press, the Criminal Chamber imposes on Villarejo and his partner, Rafael Redondo, the obligation to appear in the court of his domicile every fortnight and also before the National Court whenever they are required. In addition, it prohibits them from leaving the national territory, withdraws their passports and requires them to notify them of any change of address.
The magistrates consider that the existence of a high sentence is not only required to agree to imprisonment, since this must be accompanied by adverse circumstances that show a risk of flight.
In this sense, they point out that Villarejo was in prison from November 3, 2017 to February 10, 2020, that he has responded to all judicial appeals and has appeared at all trial sessions except those in which his authorization was given. absence. They also recall that he went to the Court Secretariat without delay to be notified of the sentence despite the fact that he was aware of the conviction.
The Court explains that Villarejo has been sentenced to 19 years in prison, but it was not by virtue of an extremely serious crime deserving of such a severe sanction, but that this sentence results from the addition of sentences imposed for crimes of concealment and disclosure of company and private secrets (four) and false commercial documents (two).
“The mere fact of the high sentences imposed does not entail a sufficient autonomous justification to determine the legitimacy of the adoption of this measure, and must be assessed in conjunction with the other requirements, it is not enough to attend only to the seriousness of the sentence specifically imposed” , collects the order, which mentions doctrine of the Constitutional Court.
In the case of Redondo, the magistrates also take into account that he was in prison from November 3, 2017 to September 14, 2018, that he has responded to the appeals of the court and that he has appeared at the oral trial sessions except for one which was authorized due to the death of his father.
This decision by the court comes a few hours after the hearing was held in which both the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and Podemos, which exercises popular prosecution, have requested entry into provisional prison -since the sentence is not final_of the retired commissioner.
It should be remembered that Villarejo was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the crimes of revealing and discovering secrets and document falsification but not bribery, one of the crimes that is the backbone of the ‘Tandem’ macro-cause.
When he came out of sight, Villarejo himself assured that he had come with his “little bag with four gayumbos” in case his imprisonment was agreed. “I did not expect to have a good reception from the goalkeeper who was there,” he pointed out before learning of the court’s decision. In addition, the retired commissioner has made it clear that he was not going to let them hit him. “I am going to defend myself, that they put more enthusiasm and give me a juyu”, he added.
Along these lines, Villarejo has insisted that he will go “to Congress” and wherever they call him. “I will never flee from Justice. They will end up fleeing, they are the corrupt ones, these unpresentable prosecutors,” he criticized.
In this first trial for ‘Tándem’ -a macro cause already made up of 47 separate pieces- the AN only judged three, those relating to the commissions called ‘Iron’, ‘Land’ and ‘Painter’.
In ‘Iron’, the espionage of the Villarejo business group, CENYT, was tried against a law firm specializing in industrial property, Balder, commissioned by another, Herrero
In ‘Land’, it was investigated whether the then commissioner had directed his inquiries against the entourage of Luis García-Cereceda, the deceased owner of PROCISA, the company that promotes the luxury development ‘La Finca’, by order of one of his daughters , Susana, in the context of a family dispute over the inheritance.
‘Painter’ was the only work of these three that Villarejo executed when he was already retired from the National Police. Here, he fulfilled the request made by the brothers Juan and Fernando Muñoz Támara to find information from a former partner, Mateo Martín Navarro, and the latter’s lawyer, former judge Francisco Javier Urquía, that would allow them to resolve a dispute in his favor. fiscal.
Villarejo has been convicted of revealing and discovering secrets and forgery of documents in the first two pieces, while in ‘Pintor’ he was acquitted, with only the Muñoz Támara brothers being convicted.
In total, 26 natural persons were tried, of which eleven were convicted, including Villarejo’s partner, Rafael Redondo, who has received 13 years in prison. In contrast, his wife, Gema Alcalá, and his son, José Manuel Villarejo Gil, have been acquitted along with 14 other people.
Apart from ‘Tándem’, it is also the first conviction against the commissioner. In 2021 he was acquitted of the crimes of insults and false denunciation of which he was accused by the former director of the CNI Félix Sanz Roldán. And last January he was acquitted of revealing secrets that the Prosecutor’s Office attributed to him for allegedly having ordered the recording and publication of a meeting between the police and the CNI regarding the investigation into Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, better known as “Little Nicolás.”
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