The Mayor of Maracena, Berta Linares, as well as her right-hand man, the former Town Planning Councilor Antonio García Leiva, will finally be investigated by the Investigating Court 5 of Granada, which has decided to open a separate piece to clarify the alleged participation of both in the kidnapping of the mayor Vanessa Romero.
The former mayor, who has denied her participation on numerous occasions and recalled that she was "neither charged nor investigated", will now have to testify as an investigated before the courts to try to explain this bizarre media case in which there is involved possible corruption, personal feuds and power struggles.
After hearing the news, Linares has assured that he welcomes "with joy" since "with the possibility of declaring and exposing reality, his innocence will finally be clear."
In addition, he has regretted "all the media commotion that shadowed his entire political career unfairly three days before the elections", causing "a media trial with no possibility of defense that the PP opposition took advantage of in a miserable way and without any embarrassment for its interest", he added in relation to the government pact that the Mayor's Office has taken from him, after he failed to revalidate the absolute majority in the last elections.
With this determination, the magistrate complies with the decision adopted by the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), which urged him to continue the essential investigative procedures not carried out, to corroborate in an indicative way its existence and criminal scope also with respect to the Andalusian parliamentarian and registered Noel López, former mayor of the town and temporarily removed as Organization Secretary of the Andalusian PSOE.
The Andalusian high court considered that the reasoned statement sent by the examining magistrate was "extensive and detailed" but also "insufficient" with respect to the investigative proceedings carried out up to the time it was sent.
Consequently, in an order dated this June 26 and reported by the TSJA, the head of Court 5 agrees to the declaration as investigated of the former mayor and the former Town Planning councilor for their alleged participation in the induction of illegal detention of the former councilor Vanessa Romero, allegedly at the hands of the councilor's then boyfriend.
The judge also orders the practice of those other proceedings that are derived and deemed necessary after said statements, as indicated by the TSJA, which has indicated that the dates for the appearance of these two investigated will be set "in the coming days."
The decision to open the separate piece in turn leaves without effect the one already taken by the examining magistrate in an order dated June 14, when he agreed to remove both the registered parliamentarian Noel López and the two municipal officials from the case, given that he had referred the case to the Andalusian high court.
The well-regarded Noel López, who was also affected by this case, even making him temporarily withdraw from his functions as Organization Secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, is still not safe from being accused of the media kidnapping.
Thus, if once the investigations that are now going to be undertaken have been completed, the investigating judge considers that there are indicative elements against López, he has the possibility of sending another reasoned statement to the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJA, the only one competent in the cases that affect people who enjoy appraisal and that it would also investigate Linares and García Leiva "derivatively".
On the other hand, the examining magistrate has agreed to issue a letter to the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (Department of Seville) to clarify whether the alleged perpetrator of the kidnapping could have consumed cocaine "on time" on February 21, when he made the alleged illegal arrest.
This other decision is produced as a result of the capillary report already prepared and sent to the court by this body, in which it was verified that the detainee, who remains in provisional detention for the facts, was not a habitual user of cocaine or other substances narcotics
