Madrid (EFE) Curbelo until his resignation as a PSOE deputy, including his computer and any other device or computer system.
In an order made public this Monday, the instructor adds that, “in the event that the Presidency of Congress collaborates by delivering these devices”, the Technological Crimes Group of the Police will be in charge of opening and analyzing its content, while specifying which refers to both computer equipment and storage systems, whether physical or remote access (in the “cloud”).
The magistrate thus responds to the request of the police team investigating this alleged corruption plot to search “without restrictions” the office of Fuentes Curbelo and to the objections expressed in this regard by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, who supported examining the former deputy’s computer equipment, but He suggested doing so by asking permission from Congress itself, since the Constitution consecrates the inviolable nature of the Cortes Generales.
Fuentes Curbelo, “leader of the political branch of the criminal organization”
The Investigating Court number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife coordinates the investigations of a case in which twelve people have so far been arrested on charges of alleged corruption, ranging from bribery and influence peddling, to falsehood and belonging to an organized criminal group .
In this new order, Judge María de los Ángeles Zabala Sanz refers to Fuentes Curbelo as the “leader of the political branch of the criminal organization” which she is investigating and details that the Congressional Police Station has informed her that, In his old office, “there is various documentation and personal effects” of the former Socialist deputy, “as well as a desktop computer.”
The magistrate agrees with the Prosecutor’s Office that it is not within her power to order, without further ado, the search of the old office in the Congress of Fuentes Curbelo, but she specifies that the Criminal Procedure Law does allow her to request permission from the president of the Chamber to do so and remember that the person being investigated no longer has an appraisal (he lost it the same day he resigned from office, on February 14).
To reinforce his request, he states for the record that, according to what has been instructed to date, “criminal indications overcome the barrier of mere conjectures or suspicions and fully enter the field of rational indications of criminality of a crime of corruption, such such as bribery, influence peddling, falsehood and belonging to an organized group, which (Fuentes Curbelo) would have carried out within a criminal organization.”
The instructor does not opt for requesting permission for the Police to search the office, but for asking Congress to hand over to the agents what she considers relevant: its content, particularly the computer systems.
An unrestricted police search
He details to Batet that he wants the Police to have access to “the instruments of telephone communication, telematics and mass storage devices for digital information, to telematic data repositories, the cloud, emails and social networks, as well as documentation, personal notes, invoices, accounting books in physical and digital format, minutes, extracts, files, registry and notarial documents.
Also, if they are in the office or in those computer equipment, to “tax documents, postal and electronic correspondence, stamps and any other support that could be related to the facts investigated, including falsified documentation, supplies and other tools to carry out the crimes investigated”.
In the case, there are photos that testify that Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo received in Congress several of the businessmen investigated in the plot as alleged “corruptors” of the former Socialist deputy, his nephew Taishet Fuentes (former General Director of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands) and the retired general of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas, the only one of the detainees who is in prison.
And the judge now adds that she has “clear evidence” of the relationship that exists between the computers she wants to investigate and the object of the case, which “is not prospective,” she remarks, but rather points specifically to possible crimes of bribery and influence peddling.
“For all these reasons, the intervention measure of the terminals requested in relation to the three terminals delivered is considered necessary and proportional, in order to be able to clarify the serious crimes that are the object of investigation in this procedure and the degree of participation and the existence of newly investigated, there being no other less burdensome measure given the aforementioned circumstances”, he reasons.
Finally, it provides that, if the president of Congress delivers the effects that have been requested, the Police are authorized to “modify the access codes” if in those computer or storage devices “facts related to the crimes investigated appear”.