Villarejo, acquitted of recording a conversation between the Police and the CNI about "little Nicolás"

The second sentence on the retired commissioner José Manuel Villarejo has also been acquittal.

The Court of Madrid has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to convict him along with his wife, Gemma Alcalá, and the journalist Carlos Mier for having surreptitiously recorded a meeting in which agents of the National Police and the National Intelligence Center (CNI) discussed the investigation related to Francisco Nicolás Gómez, little Nicolás.

The audio of the meeting was published in a digital communication medium.

The Prosecutor's Office requested four years in prison for Villarejo for the crimes of discovery and disclosure of secrets.

They also accused the State Attorney's Office -representing the CNI- and Podemos, which exercised the popular accusation.

The accusations maintained that after the arrest of little Nicolás in September 2014, a meeting took place between the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police Corps and the CNI, coinciding with the investigation into Little Nicolás for having impersonated several important Spanish businessmen as Spanish intelligence liaison agent between the Vice-Presidency of the Government and the Royal House.

The accusation also maintained that Villarejo was aware of that meeting and that, using the phone of one of the attendees at the meeting, he recorded part of its content, which later appeared on the digital media owned by Carlos Mier.

The intention would have been to torpedo the investigation.

The magistrates, says the sentence, "it is not up to them to explain how the events occurred, while unexplained doubts persist regarding how the recording was made" (with a duration of almost seven minutes and of very low quality), therefore that "based on the reasoning set forth, there is not a sufficiently solid set of evidence to integrate enough evidence to undermine the principle of innocence that favors the accused."

The sentence, which can be appealed before the Supreme Court, comes after Villarejo, defended by the lawyer

, was also acquitted of another case in which the CNI and the Prosecutor's Office sought his conviction.

In that case, the judge ruled out that he had committed the crimes of slander against the former director of the

Félix Sanz Roldán

The sentence that most interests Villarejo, that of the trial in the National Court for three of the branches of

, is pending .

In this case, the sentences claimed are much higher - they exceed 80 years - and can mark other pending trials against the commissioner in the National Court.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• CNI

• Jose Manuel Villarejo

• Little Nicholas

• National audience

• Real home

• Can

• National Police