CAMPS AND HIS SUITS IN THE NEWS AGAIN
Staff Reporter / 2010-05-31 12:49:56
The case was archived last year, but has been reopened in the light of new evidence, and Camps seems to be backing into a corner.
Madrid High Court’s investigation into the contracts doled out by the Valencian administration to the corrupt Gürtel business ring between 2004 and 2009 reached Camps, the regional chiefs of Valencia.
To make matters worse PP leader Rajoy stated that he would back Camps no matter what the outcome of the trial is, horrifying law abiding Spanish citizens who believe this kind of talk makes a mockery of the Spanish legal system.
The shelving of the case involving the suits that various members of the Valencian PP are alleged to have received as bribes, and the reopening of the case by the Supreme Court, is likely to have a beneficial effect for the course of justice, given that new information has now been discovered regarding the exact nature of these gifts, which are not as innocent as those under investigation have made out.
For Judge Pedreira, there is evidence of offenses that are much more serious than simple bribery: his investigation places the suits in the axis of the contracts between the Valencia regional government and the Gürtel ring, including those awarded for the TV coverage of the visit of the pope to Valencia in 2006, as well as a trail of mutual favors.
They could be the icing on the cake in terms of the arranged contracts — with mutual benefits—between the Valencian administration and Gürtel.
The case would open out to include new suspects: as well as the regional leader Francisco Camps, and his associates Rafael Betoret, Víctor Campos and Ricardo Costa, other high-up members of the Valencian government and PP will figure.
It would even go so far as the former treasurer of the PP, Luis Bárcenas, who was in that particular role in 2007 when certain construction companies paid off the electoral debts of the Valencian PP.
The judge in charge of the Valencia case has a tough job ahead of him, which will be complicated by pressures given the political and social relevance of those involved. The first judge in charge of the case, Baltasar Garzón, became a target for the PP before the preliminary investigation was even over.
And they have put obstacles in the way of Pedreira, interfering in the case not to go after corrupt members of the party, but rather seeking their impunity.
Tags: Francisco Camps, Pp
