The former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has opposed a new appraisal of the more than 60 jewels that the Police found in a safe in his office last May, within the framework of the investigation of the Plus Ultra case.
One day after challenging the Yanes jewelry store, to which the judge entrusted this new appraisal, the defense of the former socialist leader has presented a new document in the National Court in which he appeals this commission as he does not understand what "necessity" and "usefulness" it has.
"It is not fully understood what usefulness or what specific purpose the commissioning of an expert opinion that contains, in substance, the same object, so that it seems to overlap with the one carried out, responds," argues Zapatero's lawyer, Víctor Moreno, for whom the judicial resolution does not explain "the reasons why" Yanes was appointed for the new appraisal.
For this reason, his defense requests that "another expert other than Yanes Jewelry be appointed" and explains that "if it is agreed to maintain the diligence", he expresses his desire to "propose an expert so that he can attend the recognition and the issuance of the corresponding opinion together with the judicially appointed one."
Zapatero argues in his appeal that the Ansorena jewelry store, which valued the jewelry at more than 1.3 million euros, has already analyzed it "piece by piece" and estimated its value, even though the former president himself "disagrees with its conclusions," as he understands that it is lower.
Zapatero's defense maintains that if the report commissioned from Ansorena does not include details such as the manufacturer's identification or other distinctive marks "it will understandably be because the pieces do not contain them" and considers that the only new part of the magistrate's assignment is the age of the pieces or the manufacturing area.
And it also considers that the order in which Judge José Luis Calama commissioned a new report is not sufficiently motivated nor does it explain why this new procedure will be carried out, which in this party's opinion occupies the same space as the Ansorena report.
Nor has it been reasoned, according to this defense, why the judge appoints a new expert and does not instead ask that the Ansorena experts who have already examined the jewelry expand their report.
"A couple of million"
The letter from former president Rodríguez Zapatero also reiterates the reasons why he rejected the Yanes jewelry store, due to the statements made in public by its general director, who pointed out that the set could be worth "a couple of million" euros.
Zapatero's defense thus makes a new move against the new appraisal of the jewelry, which Judge Calama ordered last Monday, following the request made last July by the prosecutor in the case, who sought to find out the current market value and determine the date on which the pieces were set, given the suspicion that their price is much higher than the figure given by Ansorena.
Last Wednesday, the former leader of the PSOE told the judge in writing that twelve of the pieces of jewelry - the most valuable, with rubies, emeralds and sapphires - were a "personal attention" from a Saudi king - Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, now deceased - in 2007, which he accepted out of "deference" and which he kept along with others of family origin and other gifts from friends "without any use or destination, and without awareness of their material value."
