David Sánchez Pérez-Castejón no longer faces only three years in prison, but six. This is clear from the modifications to the indictment presented before the Audiencia de Badajoz by the seven popular accusations, once the evidence phase of the trial against the brother of the President of the Government, the former PSOE leader in Extremadura Miguel Ángel Gallardo, and nine other defendants was completed.
When they went to trial, the popular accusations were forced to present a joint indictment under the direction of Manos Limpias. They requested a total of three years in prison for the president’s brother. However, this Thursday they were free to intervene independently, and only Manos Limpias maintained the request for three years. The other six accusations doubled the figure: Hazte Oír, Abogados Cristianos, Vox, Liberum, Iustitia Europa, and Partido Popular.
All of them demand two years in prison for David Sánchez for three crimes of malfeasance committed through influence peddling. These correspond to the creation of his position in the Diputación de Badajoz, the modification of the job to his liking, and the hiring as an assistant of a friend who until then was an advisor in La Moncloa.
The modification of the requests with which one goes to trial is usually agile; sometimes there is no change at all. On Thursday afternoon there were numerous changes and the process was very long.
All defenses maintained their requests for acquittal. The only modification foreseen among them was from the defense of the ‘hermanísimo’ (brother), who on the first day of the trial anticipated that he would subsidiarily propose that David Sánchez be applied the «error of prohibition». This meant accepting that a crime was committed by others, but that he had no way of knowing it. This Thursday, lawyer Emilio Cortés rectified and informed the court that he would not put forward that thesis.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also requested the acquittal of all and, when the court was about to conclude the session, added something more: it asked the magistrates not to admit the modification of the indictments, considering that it was of such a profound nature, in facts and crimes, that it implied a defense disadvantage for the accused. «The indictments cannot be accepted, only that of Manos Limpias». The defenses adhered and requested at least a period of several days to study the changes.
The court, after deliberating, denied everything, considering that the changes were not substantial: the facts were barely touched upon, and the crimes handled were the same as at the beginning.
The most striking change affected Sánchez. The court had withdrawn the first crime – acceptance of an illegal appointment – due to prescription, for which only a fine was requested. On Thursday, the accusations turned the situation around and qualified those same facts more seriously: participation in malfeasance with influence peddling. There was no longer any prescription, and two years were added to the prison request. The trial will resume on Monday with the final reports in which the parties will elaborate on what was announced yesterday.
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