The PSOE of the Canary Islands has announced on Tuesday afternoon that it will open an "informative file", an investigation within the party to clarify possible irregularities, to the former president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands Gustavo Matos and current second vice president, following "the statutes and regulations of the party."
Under this decision, and within the ordinary course of the PSOE, "a designated instructor will be in charge of processing the file, in a transparent and guaranteeing manner with the right to honor and defense of the affected person."
The socialist deputy and former president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, has limited all his relationship with the Lebanese businessman Mohamed Derbah to "a coffee" to which he was invited, months before being arrested in an operation against drug trafficking, and has denied that he mediated for him before the Deputy Delegate of the Government. This has been reported by the Efe Agency.
Matos, who currently holds the second vice presidency of the Regional Chamber, has detailed in a press conference that it was Derbah himself who summoned him by telephone to said meeting in a cafeteria in a shopping center in Santa Cruz de Tenerife to tell him "something serious", without specifying what, and that it was not suspicious to him.
He has also suggested that he had "no knowledge or indications of possible irregular activities" of Derbah, "much less" of drug trafficking and money laundering, which are some of the crimes investigated in the police operation that broke out months after said meeting.
This is despite the judicial history of this businessman for his dealings with real estate timeshare or for being a partner of John Palmer, considered by the British authorities as the mastermind of the famous armed robbery of 3,500 kilos of gold in ingots at Heathrow Airport (London).
"Let's not be hypocritical: everyone knows this man and I am not the only politician" who has met with him, he argued, and added that during the pandemic, Derbah made available to the Canarian authorities a hotel complex of his property to accommodate migrants.
Gustavo Matos has detailed that at the beginning of the meeting there was a third person "with a beard", apart from Derbah and his lawyer, without being able to affirm if it was the police officer who investigated the so-called 'Mediator case', also arrested in an operation against drug trafficking and money laundering in the south of Tenerife.
And given "the seriousness" of the events they told him, with supposedly "intimidating" actions by members of the National Police, he transferred them to the Deputy Delegate of the Government, Javier Plata, as he believes it was his "obligation", and he told him that the case was under investigation.
Two days later, Derbah himself called him and conveyed the result of his efforts, and from then on he had no more contact with the Lebanese businessman, said Gustavo Matos, who added that "if there was something more" his judicial situation would be different at this time.
He has lamented the situation of "defenselessness" that the publication of "biased and tendentious" information produces in him, in addition to being decontextualized.
And the conversations transcribed by the newspaper El Mundo seem typical of "a meeting of two cartel bosses."
He stressed that in this whole matter there is a single fact "of extreme seriousness" and that it constitutes a crime: the leak to the press of a report that is part of judicial proceedings declared secret and that are "in the hands of certain people."
Matos has announced that he will ask the court investigating the case to provide him with the report from the internal affairs unit of the National Police, and has insisted on this fact, as it was not prepared by the narcotics and organized crime unit (Udyco).
Once he has access to it, he will put the matter in the hands of his lawyers to take legal action in defense of his honor and prestige, built during an "impeccable career" as a politician for more than two decades.
He believes that the police report has been "manipulated, biased", with the purpose of causing him "the greatest possible damage" and to "justify a headline" from which it is inferred that he has "acted in favor of a drug trafficking plot", which is "absolutely false."
He has admitted that if the context and the entire conversation are not reflected, for the reader there are excerpts that have "quite a bad look."
He hopes that this matter will not end up compromising his political career in the future, as has not happened to "other politicians charged, convicted and then acquitted."
Asked if he plans to resign from his positions, Gustavo Matos has responded that "obviously, no", and why he has appeared alone, without the support of his party colleagues, he has said that he does not need "escort" or to be "wrapped up", because if that were the case "I seem guilty."
He has detailed that the first call he received when the news was published was from the organization secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, and that he has also spoken with the island leadership of the party, and that he has received nothing more than "the support", "the support and affection" of both colleagues and members of other parties.
