The ruling of the Badajoz Court of Appeal represents both a condemnation and, at the same time, an endorsement. It is for the magistrate who instructed the case, Beatriz Biedma, and for the members of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) who carried out the investigation.
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The maneuvers against them became evident as the investigation of the cloacas case progressed, around the actions of Leire Díez. The “hermanísimo” case was one of the harmful causes for the PSOE and the Government that the so-called socialist plumber tried to neutralize. This same week, businessman Joaquín Parra testified before the National Court, explaining that he had met with the plumber in a “PSOE safe house,” and that she had asked him for compromising material against Judge Biedma. “They wanted to destroy her reputation.”
When the businessman asked Leire Díez why they offered to help him with his legal problems, Díez literally replied: “When you suffer injustices firsthand, when they charge your wife and your brother, then you realize that you have to clean up.”
The businessman explained to the plumber that he had nothing against Biedma, but he did put him in contact with Luis José Sáenz de Tejada, a judge convicted of prevarication who could help her. Sáenz de Tejada unsuccessfully tried to appear in the brother’s case and to challenge the magistrate to remove her from the case. The expelled judge’s sister tried again.
Biedma and her family also suffered surveillance in Badajoz from their home to the girls’ school. Their neighbors were questioned about her and her husband.
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The failed attempt to challenge Biedma occurred in a case in which the prosecutor, surprisingly, and in the middle of the instruction, turned her support to Biedma’s investigation, which she had initially not opposed. As soon as she wanted to summon David Sánchez as an investigated party, she appealed.
Adding to all the above is that the Tax Delegation in Extremadura submitted an unsigned report in which it saw no punishable signs of tax fraud by David Sánchez in Elvas (Portugal) because it lacked human and technical resources – according to its officials – to open an investigation in Portugal. The instructing judge made them see the unusual nature of their action. Biedma has faced seven tax requests about her activity in the last year.
The other way to end the brother’s case was directed at the UCO, responsible for the investigation as judicial police. In the cloacas case, it is recorded that the former director of the Civil Guard Leonardo Marcos reprimanded the unit’s commanders for having asked the judge to seize emails. He ordered them to cancel vacations and quickly dispatch the report and conclude that in the case against David Sánchez, in which three crimes were considered proven, there was “nothing.” A few days later, a similar episode occurred. The deputy operational director (DAO) Manuel Llamas appeared at the UCO headquarters and gave instructions to the agents to “keep a low profile” in cases like the brother’s.
Llamas and the director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, are summoned this Thursday as investigated parties in the National Court for alleged pressure on UCO members. Specifically, for opening internal proceedings alleging leaks. According to the judge, the evidence points to their intention to dissuade agents from pushing cases against the PSOE and the Government.
