The Criminal Chamber of the National Court has confirmed the free dismissal decreed by the investigating judge Manuel García Castellón regarding the president of Iberdrola José Ignacio Sánchez Galán in relation to the hiring of Police Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo.
The Chamber has rejected both the appeal of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the accusation represented by the president of ACS, Florentino Pérez, who appeared in the case as injured.
In one of the files, he explains that it is "however unquestionable that the mere presidency of Iberdrola S.A., the group's parent company, is clearly insufficient as an incriminating element to attribute to the person who holds said position, even in the indicative level of this procedural phase , a participation in the allegedly criminal acts under investigation".
For the court, the company that hired Villarejo was Ibredrola Renovables, of which Sánchez Galán did not preside. And it also takes into account that "the holding of the position –in this case the presidency of the dominant company– says nothing, especially in large companies such as those referred to here, about the intervention in the punishable acts or their knowledge".
Likewise, it explains that after Sánchez Galán's statement as being investigated in the case "no element has emerged" that relates him to the Villarejo contract. "The appellants do not allege anything in this regard, limiting themselves to insisting on the presidency of Iberdrola and thereby highlighting the clear existing imbalance with respect to the circumstantial heritage that supported the imputation to Ignacio Sánchez Galán of the facts concerning the other projects," he explains. the.
In another of the cars, the Chamber emphasizes that in addition, the crimes for which the president of the electric company is persecuted are prescribed. The magistrates first analyze the crime of bribery committed by individuals and point out, in accordance with the applicable legislation, the statute of limitations was 10 years “which had already elapsed on June 23, 2021, which is when the procedure was directed against José Ignacio Sánchez Galán when he was summoned to be heard as an investigator, taking into account that the facts imputed to him in the appealed order occurred between 2004 and 2009.”
In relation to the participation of individuals in the crime against privacy committed by public officials, the Court analyzes the criminal type applicable at the time of the events and concludes that, as in the previous case, it would also be prescribed. In the same way, the Chamber also considers the provisionally imputed crime of falsehood prescribed, "since none of them are punished with a sentence of up to ten years in prison."
The court thus endorses the decision of the investigating judge, who filed the case against Sánchez Galán in June for his connection with the projects 'Arrow' (from 2004 to 2006) 'Black Board' or 'B-B' (years 2004 and 2005) and the 'Gipsy' and 'Posy' projects (year 2009), when he worked, first as Vice President and CEO of Iberdrola, and then, since 2006, as President of the company. The work, the order stated, would have been carried out by Villarejo through the Cenyt Group while he was in active service in the National Police Corps.
