The European Prosecutor's Office takes over the investigation of the part of the "Mediator case" that affects the former Civil Guard general

The European Public Prosecutor's Office has decided to take over the investigation of the Mediator case in the part that affects the GAR-SI Sahel contracts, a collaboration program with the security forces of several African countries that was administered by a Spanish public foundation, but was financed with EU funds.

As reported this Monday by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), the judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in charge of the Mediator plot has accepted that this part of the case is the responsibility of the European Prosecutor's Office because it is an alleged irregular use of community funds and has made available to it all the proceedings that it has carried out regarding these contracts.

The magistrate also leaves in the hands of the EU Prosecutor's Office Francisco Espinosa Navas, the Civil Guard general accused in this plot, who remains in provisional prison and who directed until 2021 the European project that intended to help Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Chad to improve security in their territory with the creation of teams inspired by the rapid action groups (GAR) of the Armed Institute.

The TSJC specifies that the European Prosecutor's Office not only becomes the body that will be responsible for examining the use of these funds from now on, but also the one that must decide whether General Espinosa remains in pre-trial detention or is released.

The actions sent to the Community Office of the Public Prosecutor also refer to the participation of the Valencian businessman José Santiago Suárez Esteve, who received three drone supply contracts for the GAR-SI Sahel program in Mali, Niger and Mauritania and a fourth of material for CT Public Spaces (another European security program in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal).

The GAR-SI Sahel (French acronym for Rapid Action Groups–Surveillance and Response in the Sahel) is known as a European Commission project for security cooperation with several African countries, which is administered by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP).

The latter is a Spanish public body governed by a board of trustees currently headed by the First Vice-President of the Government, Nadia Calviño, who ordered an investigation into the use of funds by General Espinosa after learning that the Internal Affairs Service of the Civil Guard reported in the summary of the Mediator case an alleged preferential treatment to certain businessmen in exchange for bribes.

The judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife asked him, specifically, for details of four contracts totaling 2,352,278 euros, dating back to 2020 and 2021 and have in common that they respond to supplies of equipment for security projects in Africa (three for the GAR-SI Sahel project and one for the CT Public Spaces project).

There is doubt about whether they were rigged by General Espinosa, the only one of those accused in the Mediator case who is in prison and who kept more than 61,000 euros in his house in a shoebox and in bundles of bills rolled up in clothes.

The investigators of the National Police detail in the summary of the case that four supplies worth 137,569 euros were awarded to Suárez Esteve's company Asesoramiento y Servicios de Drones SL. The Civil Guard raises the total amount to 232,101 euros.