• Statement. The former 'number two' of the Government's Communication acknowledges the judge who provided churches with personal information to Villarejo
  • Espionage: the 'Villarejo case' focuses the Podemos piece only on the theft of the mobile
  • Commissioner Villarejo acknowledges to the judge that the Police was investigating Pablo Iglesias and admits that he had information

The former adviser to Pablo Iglesias has told the judge that the Podemos leader returned his already destroyed phone card. This was explained by Dina Bousselham in her appearance before the magistrate of the National Court Manuel García Castellón and the Anticorruption prosecutor, who are investigating the finding in the hands of former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo of a copy of the content of that card.

Bousselham has claimed that Iglesias contacted him in July 2016 to tell him that he had in his possession the mobile card that had been stolen in January. When the present Vice President of the Government gave it to him, Bousselham took it to a specialized company to retrieve its content. The answer was that it was not possible because their information had been destroyed.

According to sources present in the statement, that explanation from the complainant has focused the questioning on who had destroyed the personal information, something that could become a crime. A candidate would be the current Vice President of the Government, who according to Bousselham herself had received the card in good condition.

Her former adviser has stated that Iglesias had told her before returning it that she had been able to consult its contents, which implies that the card was still accessible when it was in her possession. Iglesias also reportedly told him that he had had the SIM in his possession for several months, something that Iglesias himself had already indicated to the judge.

The judge has agreed, with the support of Anticorruption, to claim the emails that were crossed between Bousselham and the company that examined the SIM card. When the declarant said that the card had arrived damaged or illegible, the judge emphasized that the police reports indicate that it was "destroyed", and not just damaged.

Another novelty of the statement, according to the same sources, has been that the former adviser to Podemos has acknowledged that it was she who made screenshots of the WhatsApp messages in which Iglesias told her that she would whip Mariló Montero "until he bled" , among other pearls. And that, in addition, he had shared them in various WhatsApp groups, both personal and political.

In her first statement, she had denied that she was the one who had shared those messages. Previously, the accused Villarejo had already affirmed that he had not been after the leak of those WhatsApp to some media.

No pressure

When the messages came to light, Bousselham expanded the initial complaint about the theft. However, he did not include in it that by then he had already received the SIM from the hands of Iglesias. According to sources present in the statement, the prosecutor has asked if that was due to any indication from the Podemos leader. Bousselham has denied this and has maintained that the extension of the complaint was made according to his criteria.

When she appeared in court, Iglesias explained that she returned the SIM to her friend after having it in her possession for several months. The return came after the compromised message about Mariló Montero came to light.

As this branch of the investigation around Villarejo has reconstructed, the card was stolen in January 2016, when the person who is currently prosecuting her and her partner at the time were in a shopping center. The card arrived at the Interviú newsroom , which gave the SIM to Iglesias, but kept a copy that he gave to Villarejo.

The two accused journalists, Alberto Pozas Fernández and Luis Rendueles , have submitted a brief asking the judge to file the case on the understanding that they did not commit any crime of revealing secrets. His lawyer, Sergi Mercé Klein , has participated in the statement by videoconference, as has Villarejo, Antonio José García Cabrera .

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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