Alberto Casero declares this Monday in the Supreme Court accused of prevarication as mayor of Trujillo

The deputy in Congress and former mayor of Trujillo, Alberto Casero, is summoned this morning, at 11:30 am, in the Supreme Court. He must declare as investigated to give a voluntary statement within the framework of the case in which certain agreements and service contracts that he would have made when he was mayor of Trujillo (Cáceres) in 2017 and 2018 are investigated.

The decision of the magistrate takes place after the Criminal Chamber of the high court agreed last March to open a case to the deputy as a result of the reasoned statement that the Court of First Instance and Instruction of Trujillo raised, in which the acts attributed to the then mayor as a continuing crime of administrative prevarication. The Prosecutor’s Office, for its part, understood that there were also indications of a crime of embezzlement.

The court concluded that, since the investigation of these actions was necessary, it was appropriate to assume jurisdiction and agree to initiate the appropriate procedure, and Judge Andrés Palomo was appointed instructor -according to the established shift-.

Contracts under suspicion

On that occasion, the Supreme Court reviewed the reasoned statement of the Trujillo Court, which opened preliminary proceedings by virtue of a complaint from the Prosecutor’s Office regarding certain contracts, agreements or agreements concluded in 2017 and 2018 by Casero –when he was mayor of the locality– with third parties.

According to the documentary and testimonial evidence provided by the Court, there are solid indications that the aforementioned acts of contracting were carried out by Casero without subjecting himself to the administrative procedure established for it, for which reason, in his opinion, he undertook to pay various amounts without informing the City Hall and without the necessary reports.

The Court pointed out, in turn, that in March 2017 it hired a psychologist, hiding it from the City Council, without providing the contract, without a contract file, without a report on the need for the service and without approval of the expense.

In September 2017, he signed a contract with the president of the Peruvian Chamber of Commerce in Spain committing the City Council to the payment of 25,000 euros, without informing the economic and legal services of the City Council, without the agreement being previously approved and without submit it to public information or be published in the BOE.

That same year, Casero would have verbally agreed to contribute 18,000 euros to an event organized by the Bon Vivant Cultural Association, without following any procedure and without informing the City Council services. In June 2018, he signed a sponsorship contract with the same association, committing himself to a contribution of 18,000 euros, also assuming other costs, without following any contracting procedure.

The reasoned statement also included two other facts. A contract in 2018 with the company Icaro Consultores en Comunicación, SLU, for the organization of an event for an amount of 14,303 euros plus VAT, without informing the competent services and without following the appropriate procedure. And another contract, from that same year, with Radio Interior SL –a contract for communication services and promotion of the Trujillo Cheese Fair– for an amount greater than 15,000 euros, resorting to the procedure of the minor contract when, due to the amount, should be tendered in an open procedure.

Now, the magistrate in charge of the investigation intends to question Casero to clarify the facts attributed to him by the Prosecutor’s Office. By appearing as investigated, he is not obliged to tell the truth and may or may not answer the questions of the instructor, the Public Ministry and his lawyer.