Vitoria (EFE).- The leaders of the “Miguel case” have 10 days to go to prison. That is the term given by the Provincial Court of Álava to the four main convicts, including the former leaders of the PNV Alfredo de Miguel and Koldo Otxandiano. These have also been fired today from their jobs in the public administration.
The Court has delivered today the order of firmness in which it communicates the acquittal of twelve defendants and the sentences of the fourteen convicted. The latter have also received the order to execute the sentence. It is in this document that the ringleaders are given the aforementioned ten-year period for their entry into prison.
This procedure puts an end to a case that started in 2009. That year, the lawyer Ainhoa Alberdi denounced the then Local Administration deputy, Alfredo de Miguel, at the Álava Prosecutor’s Office for asking for a “bite” to obtain a contract.
Finally yesterday, more than thirteen years later, the Court officially notified the parties of the Supreme Court ruling. In less than 24 hours, he has also handed over the order of finality and the orders for the execution of the sentence.
Four convicts will go to prison
Of the 14 sentenced for creating a corporate and personal network to irregularly obtain public contracts from administrations governed by the PNV and collect commissions, three former leaders of this party and a former director of the Basque Government must go to prison.
This is Alfredo de Miguel, who was number 2 of the PNV in Álava and regional deputy; the former leader of the PNV Alavés, Aitor Tellería; his party partner Koldo Otxandiano, and the former director of Youth of the Basque Government Javier Sánchez Robles.
De Miguel has a sentence of 12 years and 4 months for crimes such as illicit association, passive bribery, prevarication and embezzlement. However, the maximum effective time in prison will be 9 years.
Tellería faces a sentence of 6 years and one month in prison, Otxandiano 7 years and 6 months, and Sánchez Robles 7 years and one month in prison.
The defendants must also pay compensation and fines. In the case of Alfredo de Miguel, they exceed half a million euros.
Layoffs of De Miguel and Otxandiano
The firmness of the ruling has also allowed the Basque Government to dismiss De Miguel and Otxandiano today from their posts at the Hazi Foundation and the Álava Technology Park, respectively, two public companies dependent on the regional Executive.
The Basque Government has waited for the order of firmness to be able to dismiss them with “total legal certainty”, explained the Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment, Arantxa Tapia, who has specified that due to the “circumstances” of the dismissal they will not receive any compensation.
Tapia has also specified that the fact that Otxandiano is on leave from work is not an impediment to his dismissal.
In fact, his state of health opens the door for him to request not to go to prison. Precisely now a period is open for the defenses of the main convicts to present allegations such as an exceptional suspension of the sentence due to illness or even a pardon. Some of the lawyers intend to do so, as legal sources have explained to EFE.
Tapia: “An excessively long process”
The counselor has congratulated herself on the end of an “excessively long process”, since it started in 2009 and did not have a first sentence until ten years later, in 2019, when the Alava Court sentenced 15 people and acquitted others eleven.
After the appeals filed by several convicts, the Supreme Court ratified last January with slight reductions the sentences imposed on the ringleaders and acquitted one more defendant, Julián Sánchez Alegría.
However, the execution of the ruling was delayed as a result of Iñaki San Juan requesting a clarification of the sentence from the Supreme Court, which after studying the request reduced his sentence.
Finally yesterday the sentence was notified and today the order that determines its finality and the orders of execution of the same have been delivered.