Opening of oral trial for 14 people involved in the Mediator case, including 'Tito Berni'

The judge in the Mediador case has decreed the opening of an oral trial for the main piece of the plot against 14 people, among whom are the former PSOE deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, Tito Berni; his nephew Taishet Fuentes, former general director of Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands; the mediator Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte and the general of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa Navas.

In its indictment, presented in June of this year, the Prosecutor's Office requested eight years in prison for Tito Berni for continued bribery and membership in a criminal group; 11 years in prison for his nephew, to which is added the crime of fraud and a sentence of 13 years in prison - the highest sentence - for the person who acted as a mediator with the contacted businessmen, Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte: a total of 13 years.

According to the Public Ministry, since 2021, the former deputy, his nephew and the mediator "devised a criminal plan by virtue of which, after consultation between them and with a clearly defined distribution of functions, they proposed to businessmen fundamentally in the agricultural, livestock and renewable energy sectors, both at the national and regional level and in exchange for the payment of gifts, handouts and commissions, important businesses in the private sector, as well as the conclusion of contracts, receipt of subsidies and other illicit benefits in the public sphere, all geographically located in the Canary archipelago".

Thus, the order of the head of the Court of Instruction 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, María de los Ángeles Lorenzo, covers the crimes of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, prevarication, influence peddling, crimes against public administration, falsehood, membership in a criminal group, influence peddling and others such as the crime of money laundering.

The trial, which will be held in the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, also affects Civil Guard General Francisco Espinosa Navas, for whom the Prosecutor's Office is asking for two years for collaborating with the plot, which served to give an appearance of seriousness in the offers.

The eight gullible businessmen who agreed to pay the plot are also put on the bench by the magistrate, although Miguel Ángel Robayna concurs with the mitigating circumstance of collaboration with justice.