The former councillor of the Government of the Canary Islands and lawyer, Francisco José Rodríguez-Batllori, "falsely drew up invoices and charged them to the institution to collect for services that he had not provided". This is what one of the reports of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard maintains, included in the piece of the "Unión" case on which the summary secrecy has just been lifted. Batllori was Minister of Employment and Deputy Minister of Justice of the regional Executive.
During the searches carried out by the UCO, one of those invoices appeared in the cell of Dimas Martín in the Tahíche penitentiary center, where he was arrested. In addition, the agents also found two letters from Batllori addressed to Dimas, asking him for help: "See, because J.M.R. (in reference to the then Finance Councillor of Arrecife, José Miguel Rodríguez), to whom I gave the invoice for this month, told me that you had commented to him to stop now with the last one, to divert it elsewhere", said the former Canary Islands councillor in that letter. "I don't care, but I want to insist that this month is absolutely essential for me".
The invoice that appeared in Dimas' cell was addressed to the Arrecife City Council, for alleged "collaboration and advice" work, and the amount was 3,529 euros. In his statement before the judge, Dimas assured that "he did not know why" he had that invoice in his possession.
In addition, Batllori would also have made other suspicious collections from the Arrecife City Council and, above all, from Inalsa. Only in 2008, according to the UCO, Rodríguez-Batllori collected 18,677 euros from the public water company of Lanzarote, although he did not have a contract with Inalsa.
"The only friend I can count on"
In one of Batllori's letters to Dimas, which also appeared in the Tahíche cell, the former councillor of the Canary Islands Government told the PIL leader that he had a debt of 25,000 euros for "family problems" and for "a judicial matter". He also explained that when he received "the Arrecife thing", he had accumulated a debt of about 7,500 euros in his account.
"I beg you to look at what you can do, because once this issue is resolved, I will not bother you anymore. However, it is essential that both Inalsa and Arrecife deposit money to me before the 10th of each month, because if not, the ball becomes absolutely unbearable for me".
The other letter from Rodríguez-Batllori to Dimas appeared in José Miguel Rodríguez's office in the City Council, which was also searched by the UCO. Dimas himself had sent it to the councillor. In turn, José Miguel Rodríguez had also written to the PIL leader in prison, asking for instructions on whether he should pay that invoice. "Give him a hand as far as you can", the PIL leader told Rodríguez in a handwritten note, which was also seized by the UCO.
The councillor himself, who was arrested in the "Unión" case and admitted several of the crimes he is accused of, stated before the judge that he was aware that the service that Batllori intended to collect with that invoice had not been provided.
According to the UCO, what was actually being paid with those invoices were the legal services that Rodríguez Batllori had provided as a lawyer to Dimas Martín, for his personal situation (including the recent withdrawal of the third degree prison regime). And instead of paying it directly, according to the investigation, Dimas ordered the payment of invoices from public administrations. In his statement in the Courts, José Miguel Rodríguez said that he was "aware" that Batllori was the "personal lawyer of Dimas".
"Favors of a personal nature"
After being arrested in Gran Canaria and transferred by helicopter to Lanzarote, Rodríguez-Batllori denied the facts that he is accused of before the UCO agents. However, he did admit that he did not have any type of contract with Inalsa or with the Arrecife City Council, despite the fact that he collected invoices from both institutions.
As for Dimas Martín, Rodríguez-Batllori stated that he had done him "favors of a personal nature and not professional services". In fact, the former councillor of the Canary Islands Government ended his statement before the UCO assuring that he had neither worked for him nor had he charged anything from Dimas Martín.
However, he did point out that Dimas Martín called him from prison and that he had a mobile phone in prison, "which he considered incredible". Regarding whether he resorted to Dimas to collect from the institutions where the PIL governed, Batllori stated before the UCO agents that "at that moment he had to go through Dimas' hoop" (to whom in one of the letters he referred to as "the only friend I can count on"), because if he did not, they would not pay him, even if it was incredible, given that he was in prison".
Transfers "every two months"
According to Rodríguez-Batllori, "he received bank transfers" from the Arrecife City Council every two months, until "they dispensed with his services". His "services", however, were "jumping" from one area to another, so he would have collected invoices from different council departments.
Batllori himself stated at the Civil Guard barracks that he first began to have contacts with Dimas Martín, Ubaldo Becerra and José Miguel Rodríguez, in relation to the General Plan, although afterwards "they did not talk about the issue again". Within the "Unión" case, the attempt of an alleged arrangement to award the drafting of that document is also being investigated.
From there, according to Batllori, "the person with whom he had the most contact was Luisa Blanco", who was the Councillor for Personnel. However, afterwards "she informed him" that she did not want to "continue counting on his services". Luisa Blanco was also arrested and charged in the "Unión" case, within Operation "Jable".
Later, according to Batllori, it was the Councillor for Social Services, Emilia Perdomo, who "requested his services". In addition, he also claimed to have provided advisory services to Inalsa, related to the revision of the collective agreement of the workers (during that stage no modification was made to the agreement), and with the recommendation of a "specialist in insolvency law", just before the public water company entered into bankruptcy proceedings.
According to Batllori, he met with Dimas (who at that time was disqualified and serving a sentence in a third degree prison regime) and with the councillors Plácida Guerra and María José Docal.
