The tough day faced by the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, this Monday ended at the Civil Guard barracks, where he was summoned to testify after the search carried out during the morning at his home. However, San Ginés refused to answer the agents' questions, who informed him that he is charged in a new judicial investigation for several corruption crimes.
“I exercised my right to testify before the judge,” he responded to the press during the appearance he offered this Tuesday to give explanations about what happened on the previous day.
“Obviously this situation is not pleasant, but as I trust in justice, I hope that after the exhaustive investigation of all my accounts, emails, social networks and every corner of my home, by agents of the UCO and the canine unit detecting cash, all doubts that may exist about my honesty and honorability will one day be cleared, either in the instruction phase or in the trial, if there is one,” he stated in that press conference.
According to what he himself explained, the agents of this specialized unit of the Civil Guard appeared at his home first thing in the morning, without giving him details of what they were looking for. “They told me it was under seal,” he said.
Afterwards, they began a search in which he claims they inspected “every corner”, with the help of the canine unit. “I got the impression they were looking for money. Significant amounts,” he said, assuring that what they found was “very little” and they didn't even reflect it in the record.
He assures that they only collected his iPad from the CC office
After that search of several hours, they asked him if he had any other computer support, to which he replied that he had an iPad in the Coalición Canaria office in the Cabildo. This led, according to his explanation, to them going to the Island Corporation. “I told them to go discreetly, but it seems it couldn't be so discreet,” he pointed out.
Furthermore, he wanted to emphasize that “nothing was searched” in the CC office, and that they limited themselves to collecting the iPad. Afterwards, they summoned him for that statement during the afternoon at the Civil Guard barracks, which he attended with his lawyer, but in which he exercised his right not to testify.
In this regard, he has defended that he will do so before the judge, although in other previous cases he has also not wanted to testify in the Courts. He did not do so in the last one in which the investigation has just finished, and in which he is charged with false accusation and/or false testimony in the case of the Tourist Centers; and he also did not answer questions from the Prosecutor's Office or the popular accusation at the beginning of the trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, which will begin again next May.
Regarding his visit to the Civil Guard barracks during the afternoon, he pointed out that there they already explained some of the facts being investigated, related to the hiring of the lawyer Ignacio Calatayud for the Inalsa bankruptcy procedure, with the payments he received of 850,000 euros and with the alleged benefit that San Ginés would have obtained in exchange, through the acquisition of his home, which belonged to Calatayud's father-in-law, the also lawyer Felipe Fernández Camero.
“Spectacular operation” by the UCO
San Ginés has described the UCO operation as “spectacular”, while insisting on his innocence and assuring that he has “tranquility” regarding that operation of the purchase of his house, in which he previously lived as a tenant. “All payments are legitimate,” he assured.
However, although he gave explanations to the media this Tuesday, he did not want to do so before the agents, and is now waiting to be summoned by the presiding judge of the Court of Instruction Number 2 of Arrecife, Jerónimo Alonso.
In his appearance, in which he has avoided the harshness that has marked other of his previous interventions, he has questioned the work of this magistrate, who is the same one who has already investigated him in other cases.
“That's why I say I don't know what will happen,” he has stated, when asked if he believes that this new procedure will be dismissed in the instruction phase or will go to trial. In this regard, he insisted that the desalination plant case should not have gone to trial, although that criterion of the judge has been supported by the Prosecutor's Office and by different sections of the Provincial Court, which rejected all the appeals of the former president.
Furthermore, San Ginés has made it clear that he has no intention of resigning from his position as councilor of the Cabildo, where he also serves as deputy spokesperson for CC. “Of course not,” he responded, showing surprise at the press's question. “Nobody had asked me that until now,” he questioned, defending that he considers that there is “no reason” to resign.
