The AN quashes Villarejo’s 19-year sentence and orders a new sentence to be drawn up to study bribery

The Appellate Chamber of the National Court annulled the first sentence of the ‘Villarjo case’, which sentenced retired Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo to 19 years in prison and ordered the same court that made the first a new resolution to evaluate all evidence presented during the oral hearing and to rule on all crimes that are the subject of the accusation, including bribery. The magistrates thus partially estimated the means that brought the charges, including the anti-corruption prosecution – which demanded 83 years in prison for the commissioner – and the suspects who were tried in three pieces – ‘Iron’, ‘Land’ and ‘ Pintor’ – from the macro cause ‘Tandem’. It is worth remembering that Villarejo was convicted in that judgment, which has now been annulled crimes such as revealing business and private secrets and falsifying documents at the same time he was acquitted of the crime of bribery and extortion to the extent of conspiracy. The Appeals Chamber accepts the appeal of the Public Prosecution Service that challenged the acquittal of the crime of bribery, one of the nuclear crimes of the macro case, because the Public Prosecution Service has always maintained that the Commissioner used his status as a public servant for this private projects. The magistrates avoid ruling on this bribery as, having agreed to the annulment, they leave this issue to the sentencing court to reflect in the new ruling once they have assessed all the evidence presented during the oral hearing.

On the other hand, the Appeals Chamber indicates that it must conduct an evaluation of the evidence presented in the trial for which there is no motivation, and that it must rule on the crimes of extortion in some documents, obstruction of legal proceedings and the lack of motivation for the damages determined as civil liability.