As expected, Vicente Cotino, businessman and nephew of the late Juan Cotino, who was general director of the Police and president of the Valencian Cortes, has acknowledged that his uncle agreed with the Valencian Government chaired by Eduardo Zaplana to pay a bribe to change of obtaining the ITV concession in favor of his company, Sedesa.
In the fifth session of the trial for the Erial case - in which the former president and former minister Eduardo Zaplana, as well as the former president José Luis Olivas, among others, are being prosecuted - Cotino has indicated that his uncle, who died in April 2020, - He told him in 2005 that he had to pay for the agreement reached years before to predetermine the public contracting of the ITVs, agreed in favor of one of the companies in his group.
He has admitted to questions from the prosecutor that his uncle told him that a contract had to be paid for the agreement made to obtain the awards. "In 2001, Imison Internacional was established (in Luxembourg) and he told me that this was from a 1997 agreement for ITV transfers," he stated. The payment of this bribe materialized through a transfer of the Luxembourg company in favor of two other firms - which were placed in the name of Juan Francisco García - Zaplana's former chief of staff - and Joaquín Barceló - a childhood friend and confessed front man. of the former minister.
The transfer was made in 2005, once the company that managed the ITV was sold and the capital gains were obtained, and "the agreed price was 30%," Vicente Cotino explained in the trial, and he stated that his uncle told him that, Once the sale was closed and the money was in Luxembourg, "talk to Juan Francisco García." According to his statement, it was Beatriz García Paesa, niece of the spy Francisco Paesa, who made all these arrangements in Luxembourg.
"I have only seen Joaquín Barceló once, it was in Luxembourg, I have not seen him again until these days here at the trial," said Vicente Cotino, who has also admitted that the same system was used to obtain awards. of the wind plan of the Valencian Community.
After this statement, that of Mitsouko Henríquez, Zaplana's personal secretary since 1991, who has accompanied him in all his positions, began. Subsequently, the testimony of Juan Francisco García and José Luis Olivas, among others, is scheduled, although it is not certain that all of those mentioned will have time to appear today, depending on how long the testimonies last.
