• Auto.The leader of the PSOE of Huelva, one step away from facing a jury for bribing two Aljaraque councilors
  • Instruction: Judicial review to the Andalusian PSOE: the leader of Huelva prosecuted for bribery and influence peddling
  • Recording: The alleged bribe that benefited the PSOE: "Get your wife, but don't sign. It's illegal."
  • Origin: They denounce that the PSOE offered a job to avoid a motion of censure in Aljaraque

A judge has spoiled the Andalusian PSOE Susana Díaz the electoral campaign for the 10N when it had just begun. The magistrate of the Court of Instruction 1 of Huelva has opened a crisis in the PSOE of that province after sending the secretary general, Ignacio Caraballo, who is also the president of the Provincial Council and, at least until recently, one of the Andalusian socialist leaders loyal to Díaz.

Caraballo will be tried for his alleged involvement in the alleged bribe to two councilors of Aljaraque Yes It Can - the white mark of Podemos in that municipality of Huelva - that they were going to sign a motion of censure against the mayor, of the PSOE, and that finally they were cast behind. According to the Civil Guard investigation, they did not give up because of political pressure or a personal decision, but because of the commitment to obtain, in return, a reward. Specifically, the entry into the governing board of one of the mayor and the hiring in the water company of the capital of the wife of the other.

And all this, according to the order issued on Tuesday and to which EL MUNDO has had access, with the knowledge and impulse of Caraballo himself, whose implication is the magistrate for the wiretaps to those involved and the statements of the witnesses .

In its resolution, Judge María José Fernández agrees to continue the procedure to hold a jury trial against Caraballo and the rest of the accused, including the two allegedly bribed councilors, Pedro Escalante and Francisco Martín; José Luis Rodríguez, trade unionist of CCOO; and the director of Human Resources of the company Aguas de Huelva, JMMR, to which a new researcher adds, the director of Client of Aguas de Huelva, JAFM, who will have to declare as accused.

All, including the leader of the Huelva PSOE, are charged with an alleged crime of bribery of article 419 or 420 of the Criminal Code, punishable by imprisonment of between two and six years.

"What they have transferred me is that Caraballo has said to go ahead with what we proposed last night", is heard in one of the recordings made with the telephone punctures to the main protagonists of the alleged bribe.

Judge Fernández points out that although the secretary general of the PSOE of Huelva was not directly involved in the negotiations, he was "up to date" and also adds as proof of charge the frequent telephone conversations he received during those days and made to the member's mobile phone of CCOO who directed them, according to the complainants on their behalf. Only on the day that the key meeting to abort the motion took place, did they speak three times and another one the day after the vote on the said motion of censure.

The order of the Court of Instruction 1 of Huelva places Caraballo in a dead end, since it has few options taking into account the ethical code of the PSOE, which obliges to resign when the opening of an oral trial occurs in a case such as the bribe of Aljaraque. But it is that, in addition to the political scandal in full pre-campaign, it agitates the turbulent waters of the Andalusian PSOE by forcing, sooner rather than later, to open a renewal process in Huelva that could diminish Diaz's already diminishing support.

In fact, rumors are insistent that the defenestrated PSOE-A parliamentary spokesman, Mario Jiménez , would be preparing a candidacy with which to control the party in Huelva, which would be a serious blow to the leadership of Susana Díaz.

Motion

The scandal, and the subsequent judicial investigation , have their roots in the recordings that the negotiations between the councilors of Aljaraque Yes You Can and the PSOE made the communication advisor of the first formation. He recorded, from a certain moment, all the conversations he attended and made them available to the court.

In one of those recordings the PSOE representative is heard saying: The party «puts your wife in, but it is not signed. It is illegal and they put me in jail. The author would be José Luis Rodríguez and his interlocutor, the complainant to whom he explains how Francisco Martín was going to be paid, whose wife was soon called by the water company that offered him a works and service contract to perform administrative tasks .

Rodriguez went to the meetings as the " political envoy of Ignacio Caraballo", as he said in his complaint the advisor who uncovered the case and recorded its protagonists. Although the role of the president of the Diputación was not only secret. Likewise, he was the one who presided over the signing of the agreement that deactivated the motion of censure and publicly praised the work that the local leader of CCOO had developed. "The good relationship between us and CCOO has helped us to limit all the roughnesses between the different groups," Caraballo said on January 12, 2017.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Andalusia
  • Huelva
  • PSOE
  • Corruption
  • Susana Diaz

Andalusia The Board's anti-corruption office will depend on Parliament and intends to protect the complainant

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