Former Madrid president Ignacio González denies the accusations on the first day of his trial for the 'Lezo case'

The former president of the Community of Madrid Ignacio González has denied the accusations of an alleged crime of bribery in the piece of the 'Lezo case' in which the National Court is trying him, along with four other people, for alleged irregularities in the awarding of two public contracts for the Canal de Isabel II linked to a golf course of the public entity.

On the first day of the trial, in which the parties have raised the previous issues, González and the rest of the defendants, the managing director of Canal de Isabel II between 2003 and 2009, Ildefonso de Miguel, and the partners of the TCT company, recipient of the allegedly fraudulent awards, José Antonio Clemente, Pablo Manuel González and Juan José Caballero, the latter two brother and brother-in-law of the former president of the Community of Madrid, have denied the facts for which they are being tried.

For all of them, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office requests sentences of six years in prison as alleged perpetrators of bribery crimes and as necessary collaborators in them, as well as a fine of 550,000 euros.

In the previous questions, the joint defense of González's brother and brother-in-law has requested "the expulsion of the case from the representation of the Madrid City Council", arguing that, although it is filed as a private accusation, "it has no proven or alleged damage."

However, the court has rejected the City Council's lack of legitimacy due to the institution's "own allegations", which stressed that "it is integrated into the corporate structure of Canal de Isabel II, so that any economic damage caused to it necessarily affects the interests" of the Madrid council.

MADRID CITY COUNCIL, "HARMFUL"

Therefore, the Madrid City Council has indicated that "it has a legitimate, concrete and current interest in the prosecution of the facts, since the result of the criminal procedure directly affects the legal and patrimonial sphere of the corporation."

The Prosecutor's Office, for its part, has also opposed the expulsion of the Madrid City Council from the case since "it is a shareholder of Canal de Isabel II and, therefore, may be harmed by the events that are going to be judged."

"Any economic deviation that occurs in the activities of the Canal de Isabel II, allegedly carried out at this time by the accused, makes the City Council a legitimate victim for criminal purposes," the Public Ministry has indicated.

The events date back to 2002, when the Canal de Isabel II, dependent on the Community of Madrid, signed an urban planning agreement with the Madrid City Council to enable the public use of various facilities of the canal, for which it called a competition for the execution of the construction project of the roof of the canal's third tank, as stated in the document of provisional conclusions of the Public Ministry, to which Europa Press has had access.