The Court of Valencia acquits Jorge Rodríguez and the defendants in the Alquería case

The Valencia Court has acquitted the former president of the Valencia Provincial Council and current mayor of Ontinyent, Jorge Rodríguez, and the rest of the defendants in the so-called Alquería case.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
30 May 2023 Tuesday 10:56
77 Reads
The Court of Valencia acquits Jorge Rodríguez and the defendants in the Alquería case

The Valencia Court has acquitted the former president of the Valencia Provincial Council and current mayor of Ontinyent, Jorge Rodríguez, and the rest of the defendants in the so-called Alquería case. The case, which began five years ago with a spectacular police operation, led to the resignation of Rodríguez and his entire team. The court's decision comes just after the regional and municipal elections were held last Sunday, May 28.

The Court considers that the commission of the crimes of administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and falsehood in an official document attributed to them by the Prosecutor's Office and the two popular accusations has not been proven.

The court has judged whether Rodríguez and the other defendants, a total of 14, plugged members of the PSPV and Compromís into the public institution. The prosecution and private prosecutions requested eight years in prison, while the defendants have defended their innocence and have underlined the personal damage suffered.

The defenses maintained that the contracts had a merely administrative component, that no one had seized public funds nor was there any intention of fraud when carrying out said contracts and that they had the approval of the legal services of Divalterra and an expert external.

The Court has concluded that not only has it not been proven that the company was economically harmed by this new management model, but that the new structure of the company "allowed it to significantly expand its activity without its budget doing so".

The sentence reflects that there was no public tender to cover the area directorates, as well as that the selection of those hired, "without prejudice to the requirement of professional training, was made among people known and ideologically related to the parties that had reached the called 'Botanical Pact'”.

However, it then specifies that it cannot be taken as proven that this new structure "obeyed the need or desire to hire certain people, as a way of paying favors or granting perks."

“We rather consider that the order was reversed. Imelsa was provided with a new structure that (...) was considered more effective for the fulfillment of the social purposes; and they looked for people who were capable of performing it”, the magistrates point out.

In this sense -they reason- "no less important than their training and professionalism, people were sought who could deserve the trust of the management team". Therefore, "it is not strange that these people were politically close to the parties of the government of the Provincial Council and the government of Imelsa", adds the Court.

In the same way, the Chamber considers that the people hired performed effective work in the company and that it cannot be said that said work was “irrelevant or lacking in responsibility”.

The magistrates also rule out that the facts constitute the crime of embezzlement, since the people hired, regardless of the type of contract they signed, "fulfilled the functions corresponding to the director of their respective areas."

This circumstance "precludes talking about the theft or diversion of funds, since the amounts paid were budgeted for the purpose for which they were used."

Therefore, according to the judicial resolution, "there has been no damage to public coffers, since society benefited from the work that the contractors performed."

The same conclusion is reached by the First Section of the Hearing on the crime of documentary falsification, since "the contract strictly responds to the will of the parties."

The resolution acquits, along with Rodríguez, the co-managers of Divalterra Agustina Brines (of Compromís), Xavier Simó (of the PSPV) and Josep Ramón Tíller (PSPV); the secretary-lawyer adviser of this public company, Jorge Cuerda, and two advisers from the Provincial Council, Ricard Gallego and Manuel Reguard. They were accused of the alleged crimes of administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and falsification of an official document.

Also to Josep Luis Melero, Soledad Torija, Raúl Ibáñez, Manuel Carot, Miguel Ángel Ferri, Salvador Femenía and Víctor Jiménez for the crimes of embezzlement of public funds and false official documents.