Spain's Rajoy denies knowing graft deals in the ruling party
SAN FERNANDO DE HENARES, Spain (AP) - Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told Spain's National Court on Wednesday that he didn't know anything about the ruling Popular Party's accounting when a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme allegedly helped its funding.
Rajoy is not accused of any wrongdoing, but the court called for him to provide testimony as the party's vice secretary general until 2003, and secretary general until 2004, when the illegal scheme was allegedly still operating.
"I never took care of the economic issues in the party," Rajoy told a court of three magistrates during the highly-anticipated proceeding.
He arrived in a convoy of cars at the tightly secured National Court's compound in San Fernando de Henares, in the outskirts of Madrid. Meters away, but out of Rajoy's sight, around one hundred protesters held banners and shouted slogans accusing the conservative party of covering up corruption. Some of them held signs reading "mafia out, democracy in" and shouted "Justice! Justice!"
Wednesday's hearing is the first time a Prime Minister has appeared in court while holding office since Spain transitioned to democracy four decades ago. Adolfo Suarez and Felipe Gonzalez were involved in separate trials but only after they left office.
As deference to his position, and in an apparent attempt to underscore that he is a witness and not a defendant, Rajoy testified seated at a table on the stage, at the same level as the three magistrates - not standing in front of them as is customary in similar proceedings.
Businesspeople, elected officials and other Popular Party members, including two former treasurers, are among the 37 accused of bribery, money laundering and tax evasion in the "Gurtel case," named after the German translation for belt. The Spanish word for belt is also the last name of Francisco Correa, a businessman arrested in 2009 who is the key defendant in the case, considered one of the largest corruption scandals in the country's modern history.
Correa faces a 125-year prison sentence if found guilty of controlling the network of aides and companies that arranged free events for the party in exchange for public contracts.
On Wednesday, Rajoy repeated what he had said earlier: that he never met Correa and he was the one, as party president in 2004, who ordered to halt the contracting of Correa's companies upon learning that they were misusing the party's name.
The trial is part of a wider probe into illegal party funding reflected in hidden accounting kept by Luis Barcenas, who was the party treasurer for almost three decades.
In the most damaging allegations to date, Barcenas has said there was always a scheme of illegal contributions to the party and that top officials were aware. The party has denied his claims and Rajoy struck to the same line again on Wednesday's court appearance.
Rajoy called allegations that high-ranking officials in the party received illegal bonuses as "absolutely false." He explained that some received from a complement from the Popular Party to their salary as legislators, that it was taxed and that the payment was halted as soon as any of them took a position in the government.
As prime minister, Rajoy has made economic growth and job creation his chief goals since the party returned to power in 2011. In June, he won a no-confidence debate called against him by Podemos, a left-wing opposition party, because of the myriad of corruption scandals involving his party, including the Gurtel case.