The Urbaser executive arrested last Tuesday in Madrid, Francisco José Martínez, has appeared in court this Thursday, and this afternoon he will testify before Judge César Romero Pamparacuatro and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Luis del Río. Thus, the executive, who was transferred to Lanzarote by plane this Wednesday, and has since remained in the Civil Guard cells, will be the first of the detainees to appear before the judge.
The other three arrested on Wednesday, including Felipe Fernández Camero, Celso Betancort and an executive from Fomento Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), are scheduled to appear in court starting this Friday, and it is not ruled out that the detention of some of them may be extended until Saturday, in case there is not enough time to take all the statements on Friday.
After the interrogation, the magistrate and the Prosecutor's Office must decide the situation in which each of the detainees remains, who could be released on charges or enter provisional prison, if it is considered pertinent in any of the cases, as has happened after other waves of arrests in the "Unión" case.
More than 50 arrests
The four arrests that have occurred this week, and which could mean the final stretch of the "Unión" case, leave a total of 52 detainees in the different phases of this judicial case. In Operation "Unión", 20 people were arrested in two different waves of arrests, and shortly after another arrest occurred, that of José Francisco Reyes, ending the operation with 21 arrests. In "Jable", 25 people were arrested, in three different days.
Two months later, the arrest in Madrid of two Urbaser executives arrived, to which we must now add the four new arrests registered between this Tuesday and Wednesday.
In addition to 52 detainees, there is a very similar number of defendants who were not arrested, but summoned to testify at the Civil Guard headquarters. The first of these names, after the outbreak of Operation "Unión", did transcend at the time, but subsequently there have been many other statements that are still unknown. Adding all these people, the number of defendants in the "Unión" case already reaches one hundred, and many are still pending to appear in court.
