One of the methods that former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo practiced to help himself in his work was cultivate their relationships with judges and magistrates of the different courts and tribunals, especially those of Instruction in the capital, located in Plaza de Castilla, and those of the National Court. In his agenda he names these practices in a very significant way: “robe control”.
Thanks to his annotations and the audios he recorded of any meeting, from when he arrived nearby and greeted until he had moved far enough away not to be discovered, it is possible to verify how his relations with the magistrates were, to whom he also offered classes. and conferences through Schola Iuris.
There are those with whom a special trust is appreciated, as is the case with the judge of the National High Court Fernando Andrewa circumstance that, according to legal sources, prevented him from being Secretary of State with Dolores Delgado as Minister of Justice. Or with the former dean of the Madrid courts Jose Luis Gonzalez Armengolwho owed him a favor in relation to the indictment of former Madrid president Esperanza Aguirre for fleeing from the police after parking in a prohibited area to withdraw money from an ATM.
A relationship that he also seeks with his successor, Old Anthony. “Basically, to make myself available to her. Somehow, We have a rule that every time a person in your charge takes office, well, so that they get to know us a little“, Villarejo introduces himself, adding that he works “in the Police intelligence area”, according to the recording of the meeting to which ‘El Periódico de España’ has had access.
After breaking the ice, Villarejo tells him, as he had already done with Armengol, what worried him, the case for tax crimes against the Hispanic-Lebanese businessman and personal friend of the king emeritus Abdul Rahman El Assirwhich was instructed in the Court of Instruction number 52 of Madrid, with whose head, then Fermin Echarri, met to try to influence him. The former commissioner also tried unsuccessfully to use this meeting to remove him from the court that judges three of the contracts investigated in the Tandem case.
The former commissioner, who exercised the popular accusation in the case against Aguirre through the Transparency and Justice Association, came to him through Armengol, who sent the president the questions that he was going to ask her in court, so that he could play with an advantage. The former police officer and the judge commented on the move days later. “The matter has been a fucking motherfucker,” says the then dean, who adds in allusion to the president of the PP in Madrid: “Fuck that in addition to a lesson from this …” The commissioner completes: “Not bad” .
reserved funds
The main point of the meeting, however, was to help El Assir and Villarejo even offered the magistrate 20,000 euros of reserved funds for his participation in the efforts to achieve a judicial agreement that would benefit the arms dealer. “I can put the initials and a doodle. I say that there is a person who has advised me on this subject and hey, very rich 20,000 euros tax free“, offers.
Armengol replies: “Like those of Vera and Barrionuevo, and is that signed by the Secretary of State?”, to which the ex-police officer answers affirmatively to then presume that other reserved funds are held by “the Presidency of the Government.” After lunch, Villarejo wrote it down in his agenda: “Very nice food, very predisposed to everything. Agree to bring sensitive items“.
During this conversation, Villarejo boasts to his interlocutor of being the person to whom other judges and prosecutors in Spain in trouble go. Among them he cites Joaquin Aguirre, head of the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona, whom he refers to as “bold” and “brave”, but in a “hostile environment”. “He tells me, I trust you, but the first time you do me I’ll cut your head off, because he is a vehement man,” the commissioner comments to his interlocutor.
Another magistrate that Villarejo tried to approach during those years was Juan Antonio Bulla controversial judge who in July 2020 was acquitted by the Supreme Court of a crime of reckless prevarication in concurrence with a crime of revealing secrets for providing information, to someone who was not part of the procedure, of a case related to the former president of the Spanish Basketball Federation Jose Luis Saez.
The agendas show that the commissioner tried to approach him using the former head of the Central Operational Support Unit (UCAO) as an intermediary. Enrique Garcia Castanoalso accused of espionage to the ex-treasurer of the PP Luis Barcenas. In fact, Villarejo claims to have had a conversation with Toro through his companion’s hands-free phone.
Privileges
These contacts as well as those provided by the Police they allowed him privileges in the courts of Plaza de Castilla. Security sources from this judicial headquarters explain to this newspaper that the first time that Villarejo had to testify as being investigated for the case of the complaint filed against him by the Dr. Elisa Pinto, enjoyed obvious privileges. I enter through the garage, not through the doorand in a official car of the Ministry of the Interior with two other agents, a man and a woman, as escorts.
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He was also able to wait in the security offices, since he said that doing so at the door of the court would allow him to be photographed, which would have harmed him in his capacity as an infiltrated agent, he said.
“He came and stayed in the offices. And she began to talk about many things with everyone. He always entered through the garage, because he asked his colleagues from the Police for permission & rdquor ;, explain employees of Plaza de Castilla who met the retired commissioner, among those he treated was also a coroner attached to the Madrid courts.