Judge José Luis Calama of Spain’s National Court, who presides over the Plus Ultra case, has consented to summon Alba and Laura Rodríguez Espinosa, daughters of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to appear as investigated individuals, and this ruling also extends to Gertrudis Alcázar, Zapatero’s secretary, who will be required to testify under the same procedural designation.
The decision comes after the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office asked that the three women be interviewed as suspects, and Vozpópuli reports that the judge will issue a forthcoming ruling to schedule their appearances.
In the case of Alba and Laura Rodríguez Espinosa, the ruling is tied to their responsibilities as official managers of Whathefav SL, a communications and marketing agency currently under investigation. The judge deems that their roles within the company require their appearance under the procedural safeguards afforded to individuals under investigation.
The magistrate contends that the company is linked to transactions pertinent to the case, and that its administrators should therefore give testimony under a legal framework that safeguards their constitutional rights; he believes that calling them solely as witnesses would be unsuitable, since it would compel them to speak truthfully and might jeopardize their protection against self-incrimination.
The investigation is examining several financial movements involving Whathefav and other companies linked to the Plus Ultra case. According to the proceedings, Inteligencia Prospectiva allegedly transferred 368,258.72 euros to Análisis Relevante, a company associated with Julio Martínez, a friend of Zapatero, and another 561,440 euros to the firm managed by the former prime minister’s daughters.
Investigators also point to payments allegedly made by Análisis Relevante, a company said to have been financed by Plus Ultra. These include 490,780 euros to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and 239,755 euros to Whathefav. Particular attention has been placed on invoices issued under the general concept of agency services, without a detailed description of the specific work carried out.
According to the judicial line of inquiry cited by the outlet, those payments may have been linked to layout and formatting work on reports that had already been prepared. For the judge, the lack of clarity regarding the actual services provided could suggest a mismatch between the declared activity and the real purpose of the transactions, potentially pointing to a formal cover role.
Zapatero’s appearance before the National Court on Wednesday failed to ease the investigating judge’s concerns, as the former prime minister firmly rejected any role in the supposed commission scheme tied to the rescue of Plus Ultra, the airline granted 53 million euros in public funds during the pandemic, and he further maintained that Whathefav operates legitimately as an active company serving multiple clients.
Regarding Gertrudis Alcázar, the judge likewise considers that there is enough basis to call her in as a subject under investigation, as earlier decisions had already portrayed her as a significant operational presence within the supposed network, performing tasks from Zapatero’s office in Ferraz and routinely accessing the former prime minister’s email account.
An examination of the seized emails assigns to Alcázar, alongside Cristóbal Cano, responsibilities involving coordination and the drafting of materials connected to the so-called Finance Boutique, and the investigating judge indicates that this documentation might have been employed to give a formal veneer to payments received and issued by the corporate structure under investigation.
Source: Vozpópuli — https://www.vozpopuli.com/tribunales/la-audiencia-nacional-acuerda-investigar-a-las-hijas-de-zapatero-y-a-su-secretaria.html
