The Valencia Court considers that there is “sufficient evidence” to judge Zaplana

The Court supports the investigation carried out by the Investigating Court 8 of Valencia and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office The Court has rejected the appeals presented by the former president of the Generalitat and other defendants Zaplana faces 19 years in prison and a fine of 40 million euros The Court of Valencia has rejected the resources of the defenses of several of those prosecuted for the Erial case and, in an order communicated to the parties, considers that there are sufficient “indications of criminality” to put Eduardo Zaplana and 19 other people on the bench, among which is the former president of the Generalitat Valenciana, José Luis Olivas. The Fifth Section of the Valencian Court thus supports the instruction carried out by the Investigating Court 8 of Valencia and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, leaving the way clear for the opening of oral proceedings against those accused of charging illegal commissions with the rigged privatization of the Valencian ITV and the adjudication of the Wind Power Plan of the Community. The magistrates consider that the allegations presented by Zaplana “should be raised in the oral trial order.” The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana has tried to invalidate the origin of this long investigation that is already five years old, based on the documentation found in what was his former home by a citizen of Syrian origin and that he gave to Marcos Benavent. Documentation that investigators found in the office of one of the “money junkie’s” lawyers. Zaplana has also demanded that Benavent himself and former commissioner Villarejo give a statement before the investigating magistrate. However, the Court points out that “it is not possible to understand what extremes of vital importance can be accredited with the same [diligencias], being more than enough the diligences carried out to agree on the pronouncement “of the magistrate that opens the door to the opening of the oral trial”. 19 years in prison The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor requests 19 years in prison for Eduardo Zaplana for the alleged crimes of criminal group, money laundering, bribery, falsity in a commercial document and administrative prevarication. In addition, a fine of 40 million euros. In the letter from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, the Public Ministry requests the confiscation of 20.6 million euros from the accused, considering that it is the amount of money that the organization moved. Of the rest of defendants, Anticorruption requests a 14-year prison sentence for the Cotino brothers, and for the other former president of the Generalitat involved in the plot, José Luis Olivas, requests six years in prison.