The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requests 19 years in prison for the former Partido Popular president of the Generalitat Valenciana and former Minister of Labour of the Aznar government, Eduardo Zaplana, for the crimes of criminal organisation, money laundering, bribery, falsehood in official and commercial documents and administrative prevarication within what is known as the Wasteland case. To the prison sentence is added a fine of 40 million euro and two others of 72,000 and 36,000 euro respectively.
This is stated in the tax qualification presented to the Court of Instruction number 8 of Valencia, after carrying out an investigation that has contemplated the alleged collection of more than ten million euro in commissions derived from ITV concessions and wind farms in the Valencian region at the time of Zaplana, through an organisation formed by a group of people close to the former president.
According to reports, this group close to Zaplana operated through companies located abroad, created with the purpose of receiving bribes for predetermined awards and to hide the illicit origin of the goods, contributing to their subsequent transformation and integration into the economic circuit.
Last June, the investigating court issued an order by which it concluded the investigation phase and summoned the Prosecutor’s Office and the other accusations to request the opening of oral proceedings, the filing of the procedure or, exceptionally, the practice of proceedings complementary.
For his part, Zaplana alleges his innocence and “absolute disagreement” with the accusations against him by the prosecutor ‘s office, whom he accuses of having exercised an “inquisitorial instruction” on his person. The former president relies on the act of the oral trial to be able to prove his innocence.
Eduardo Andrés Julio Zaplana Hernández-Soro is a Spanish politician who served as Minister of Labour and Social Issues from 2002 to 2004, President of the Valencian Government from 1995 to 2002 and Spokesperson of the Partido Popular (PP) in the Spanish Congress of Deputies from 2004 to 2008.
