Eduardo González
The presiding judge of the Sixth Chamber of the Central Court of First Instance of the National Court, Antonio Piña, has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Hazte Oír association against former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for money laundering, drug trafficking, and membership in a criminal organization in connection with his ties to President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan regime.
In a ruling cited this Tuesday on the National Court’s website, the judge considers that the facts presented in the lawsuit come from open sources, especially journalistic reports, and points out that they have not provided “rational evidence of criminal activity that would allow for the opening of criminal proceedings.”
The investigating judge, after analyzing the complaint and each of the alleged crimes attributed to Rodríguez Zapatero, points out that “personal or popular belief cannot be confused with the existence of facts sufficient to warrant the opening of a criminal case.”
He also notes that the complaint “does not present any evidence that could link the defendant to the crime of drug trafficking or membership in a criminal organization, and the same applies to the charge of money laundering.” Therefore, the judge concludes that the complaint should be dismissed because the reported facts lack sufficient grounds for prosecution.
The Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office and Haze Oír
According to the Europa Press news agency, the Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office had previously requested the judge to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the events “cannot be classified as the crime of money laundering from drug trafficking” and that some of the allegations “are based solely on journalistic reports, which is insufficient to initiate a judicial investigation,” and that the remaining events “are already being investigated in other open proceedings.”
The Prosecutor’s Office also considered that “the complaint neither minimally describes nor imputes any genuine acts that appear to be criminal” and that it only includes “unfounded conjectures, assumptions, and/or deductions lacking any descriptive basis or factual support.” The only “circumstantial evidence” is the existence of a formal indictment for drug trafficking in the United States against Maduro “and other high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan regime (…), among whom Zapatero is not included,” it adds.
Hazte Oír had accused Zapatero of drug trafficking, money laundering, and membership in a criminal organization and had requested the intervention of the National Court because these were crimes allegedly committed by a Spanish citizen “abroad.”
According to the organization, also cited by Europa Press, Zapatero “did not limit himself to a political or diplomatic role, but rather would have decisively contributed to bolstering and facilitating the international operations of the Nicolás Maduro regime.” “This collaboration with the criminal structure would have served to strengthen its operational capacity, its external cover, and its continuity, elements that must now be investigated in court to determine, if applicable, the corresponding criminal liabilities,” it adds.
