The Diplomat
The head of the Court of Instruction Number 7 of Zaragoza, in charge of the investigations into the entry into Spain of the Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali, has agreed to close the investigation into the ex-chief of staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Camilo Villarino, but has rejected the request of the State Attorney’s Office to close the investigation into the ex-minister Arancha González Laya.
In an order dated 10 March, to which Europa Press had access, the magistrate Rafael Lasala partially rejects the request of the State’s legal services. “I provisionally dismiss these proceedings only with respect to Camilo Villarino, continuing with the rest of the investigation“, he states.
The judge’s decision comes after the State Attorney’s Office requested on 8 February that the investigation into the former minister and her chief of staff, Camilo Villarino, be closed. The defence considers that there are no elements to prove a possible crime of prevarication, concealment or falsehood on the part of any of the former government officials.
In 18 pages, the state legal services insisted that the facts accredited in the framework of the investigation “do not constitute any crime”. “It is therefore appropriate not to unnecessarily lengthen the investigation into my defendants, due to the adverse effects and consequences that this would have for them,” he said. This, he stressed, “without prejudice to the possible continuation or maintenance of the proceedings in relation to other investigated persons in relation to the possible crime of falsehood”.
After reviewing the facts so far gathered in the proceedings, the judge emphasised that, bearing in mind that authorities and officials from the Foreign Office, Interior and Defence were involved, what the law tells him is that “the President of the Government directed this joint action”.
“Well, when the issue was promoted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs after receiving a call from Algeria, the final decision was the responsibility of the President of the Government, with the Ministers of the Interior and Defence knowing that this decision meant they had to inform certain authorities and civil servants in their departments to follow the instructions given by Camilo Villarino in this regard,” he affirms.
The magistrate points out in his order that “everything seems to indicate” that Camilo Villarino “was only informed by the Ministry of the Interior of the pendency of criminal proceedings against Ghali when he had already been in Spain for several days (…) without having been informed of this beforehand by the person who had chosen him as a highly qualified professional to manage his arrival in Spain”.
Thus, he concludes that Villarino is “someone outside the core group of people who would have known about the judicial interest in Brahim Ghali”.
