The judge overseeing the Zapatero case has agreed to admit the nullity incident presented by the defense of the former Prime Minister and “rectifies” the order by which it was rejected for being submitted late. The instructor now acknowledges, as argued by lawyer Víctor Moreno Catena, that he did not have access to the file in time and that, therefore, “the document submitted by the legal representation of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is within the established deadline.”
The lawyer for the former socialist leader argued that he did not have access to the platform that provides access to documentation for lawyers in a timely manner and that, therefore, the deadline could only be counted from that moment. However, the judge specified that “this does not determine the admission of the incident in the intended terms“.
The instructor only accepts “exclusively its admission for processing regarding the resolutions that could not be appealed in form”. In this regard, he recalls that “the nullity of actions in the investigation phase can only succeed when the challenged resolutions, even if issued during the investigation, have become final and have caused a constitutional injury that the party could not have reported earlier”. That is, he warns Moreno Catena that “the nullity incident cannot become an alternative mechanism to review notified instructive decisions and appeal them”.
Zapatero has demanded the case be annulled after having incorporated, in his view illegally, the content of the mobile phone of businessman Rodolfo Reyes, former owner of the airline Plus Ultra. This device was seized by American authorities and included in the file by the Judicial Police. It contains messages referring to the former president as a way to try to obtain the public bailout of the airline, which was ultimately agreed upon by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in 2021 and is currently under investigation.
Judge Calama maintains the indictment of Zapatero, attributing to him the direction of a criminal network to traffic in influence in exchange for commissions, such as the one percent commission in exchange for the rescue of Plus Ultra with 53 million public funds.
