José Luis Ábalos assumes that the next step in the case investigating the scandal of the so-called ‘Koldo case’ will be his own indictment and warns that, even in that case, he does not intend to hand over his seat as a deputy in Congress. “I am not going to leave my seat because I have to defend myself. Today this happens to me but tomorrow it could happen to someone else. This public lynching and this disregard for procedural guarantees could happen to the next person.”
Puente’s audit on the ‘Koldo case’ questions Ábalos and his team’s management in the purchase of material
In an interview this Monday in Wave Zerothe former ‘number three’ of the Socialist Party and Minister of Transport has once again defended his innocence. “Those who are trying to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office accept their guilt and I have done nothing. They want to charge me, they will try, but we will see what the Supreme Court says. It is clear that this entire investigation is for me. They even know the name of my partner, where I go, what I do. And nobody says the word ‘allegedly’ here. This is a lynching,” he denounced.
Ábalos has pointed directly at the Government of which he was a member as responsible for this lynching, in reference to the internal investigation launched by the Ministry of the current Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente. “When there is a criminal investigation, opening another internal investigation can contaminate the first one. And there is something that draws my attention: How can a report from the Administration call into question the report from the Court of Auditors? They contradict the very complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office and which gives rise to this entire investigation,” he defended himself.
He has also been questioned about some of the recently leaked and published emails about José Luis Ábalos’ work trips as head of the Ministry of Transport and the presence of a woman who accompanied him. The former socialist leader has assured that this person was his partner at the time and that all the expenses incurred on these trips were assumed by him. “They were always my responsibility, they have never been paid with public money,” he assured.
Regarding the published email in which a breakdown of expenses associated with meals and travel can be seen, and which the woman is supposedly claiming from him, Ábalos has assured that it is a “fake email”. “I have the emails and I made them, it was a trap to catch a person and due to life circumstances it is now being used in this way, but this is from 2019 and has nothing to do with the pandemic. This person is not claiming anything from me and I was not paying anything, but they have managed to make it go viral and they are campaigns with a lot of contempt”, he maintained during the interview.
On Monday, the judge investigating the so-called ‘Koldo case’ rejected the request by the far-right association Iustitia Europa to charge him based on the conclusions of the internal investigation carried out by Óscar Puente’s Transport Department. For the moment, the judge is awaiting the conclusions of a recent report by the UCO resulting from the searches carried out at Koldo García’s personal home.
The investigating judge has also requested a report from the Public Prosecutor’s Office to determine whether or not it is appropriate for José Luis Ábalos to also appear in the case as a victim, as he himself has requested.
What is the ‘Koldo Case’ that involves José Luis Ábalos?
José Luis Ábalos Refuses to Resign Amidst ‘Koldo Case’ Investigation
The former Minister of Transport and ‘number three’ of the Socialist Party, José Luis Ábalos, has stated that he expects to be indicted in the ‘Koldo case’ scandal, but he has no intention of resigning from his seat as a deputy in Congress. Ábalos made these comments in an interview on Wave Zero, where he defended his innocence and denounced what he calls a “public lynching” and
