The judge in the Mediador case releases former deputy Fuentes on charges

The judge of Santa Cruz de Tenerife who is investigating the so-called Mediador case has released the former PSOE deputy in Congress, Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, although with charges of bribery, forgery, money laundering, influence peddling and membership of an organized criminal group.

According to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, the Prosecutor's Office - the only accusation in the case so far - has not requested imprisonment for Fuentes Curbelo because it does not see a risk of flight or consider that there is a danger that he will destroy evidence.

Of the thirteen people arrested for this plot of alleged extortion of businessmen in the livestock and food sector in exchange for receiving preferential treatment in inspections or in the processing of European aid, only retired Civil Guard General Francisco Javier Espinosa has been imprisoned.

When the case broke out on February 14 with the first arrests in the Canary Islands and in several provinces of the peninsula, Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo was a deputy in Congress for Las Palmas, a seat he resigned from that same day, after being suspended from membership on a precautionary basis by the PSOE.

It was not until this Monday that his arrest was formally ordered, once the investigating judge number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife received official confirmation from Congress that he was no longer a member of the Chamber and, therefore, had lost his status as a person with parliamentary immunity (only the Supreme Court can proceed criminally against a deputy in the Cortes).

Fuentes Curbelo was arrested in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), witnessed the search of his home and then was transferred to the Police Station on Avenida Tres de Mayo in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in whose cell he spent the last night.

This morning, he testified for about five hours: he arrived at the courts of the capital of Tenerife at 8.45 am and left at 1.30 pm, judicial sources said.

Among those charged in the plot, is also his nephew Taishet Fuentes (PSOE), who replaced him as Director General of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands when he acceded to Congress.

A main figure in the alleged dealings of the organization, according to investigators, Taishet Fuentes was removed from his post in the autonomous community last summer. At that time, the spokesman for the Canarian Government, Julio Pérez (PSOE), explained that he had been removed from the Livestock area due to "loss of confidence".

However, the PSOE of Fuerteventura was going to present him as a candidate for mayor of the City Council of Antigua in the elections of next May. Removed from the party like his uncle, he will no longer head the socialist candidacy to that municipality either.