The former president of the Community of Madrid Esperanza Aguirre has testified as a witness in the trial of the National Court for the 'Lezo case' that she did not participate in the awarding of two public contracts for the Canal de Isabel II linked to a golf practice court in the public entity.
In his statement this Thursday, Aguirre distanced himself from the alleged irregularities in the awarding of said contracts that, according to the accusations, could have benefited relatives of his successor in office, Ignacio González, accused in this trial.
In addition to González, 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, are accused.
The former 'popular' leader has asserted that the idea of building a golf practice course in the vicinity of the Canal was "entirely" hers, but has specified that she did not have any type of intervention in the awarding of the works, since although "the Canal was property of the Community of Madrid, the management was carried out by the board of directors" of the entity.
Aguirre explained that the idea came to her after a trip to Tokyo when she was an official at the Ministry of Tourism, in which she was "very surprised" to see "that there were many places within the city with practice courses" for golf.
The former leader of the PP has stated that she considered it a "good idea" to build such a court in the area of the Canal de Isabel II in the Madrid district of Chamberí, which "practically has no parks or sports areas, instead of a heliport, which is what it was."
Likewise, he has pointed out that González and De Miguel "never" communicated details to him about said works and has specified that with his successor he has had "a very long relationship in the Madrid City Council first and in the Ministry of Education later."
When González, who had been her 'number two' during her years at the head of the Community of Madrid, between 2003 and 2012, went to prison in 2017, Aguirre resigned as spokesperson and councilor in the Madrid City Council.
"I resigned out of political responsibility," objected Aguirre, who detailed that he did so when it was announced to him that a judge had put González in jail, in provisional detention, to whom he continues to give "the presumption of innocence." However, he explained that he considered that when a judge takes such a measure against "a politician, it is assumed that he has very well-founded evidence to believe that he may have committed criminal irregularities."
Before entering the headquarters of the National Court in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, the former 'popular' leader stated that how would she know" what the accused Ignacio González was doing and assured the media that she was going to testify "as a witness to tell the truth and the whole truth."
On the first day of the trial last week, in which the parties raised the previous questions, González and the rest of the defendants 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.
The events date back to 2002, when the Canal de Isabel II signed an urban planning agreement with the Madrid City Council to enable the public use of various canal facilities, for which it called a competition for the execution of the construction project for the roof of the canal's third tank, as stated in the document of provisional conclusions of the Public Ministry.
In June 2004, the management of Canal de Isabel II, held by Ildefonso de Miguel and Ignacio González, then vice president of the Community of Madrid, "in order to benefit the latter's relatives, promoted and facilitated the processing of a modified version of the previous tender, despite the fact that, taking into account the substantial variations that were going to be introduced, a new tender should have been called," according to Anticorrupción.
"Guided by this goal, they agreed with Dragados that Canal de Isabel II would directly award this company the modified contract, imposing the condition that it subcontract certain works to the company Tecnoconcret Proyectos de Ingeniería", known commercially as TCT, whose partners were Clemente, González's brother and brother-in-law.
