The trial of the so-called Kitchen case in Spain is now ready for a verdict, following the final defence statement from the lawyer representing the former driver of Luis Bárcenas, according to RTVE.es. The proceedings have lasted more than three months of sessions, as reported by EL PAÍS.
The case centres on allegations that a secret police operation, dubbed Kitchen, was set up within Spain’s Interior Ministry to steal compromising documents from Bárcenas, the former treasurer of the conservative Popular Party. Bárcenas was already at the centre of a separate corruption scandal. The operation is said to have involved senior police officials and political figures.
During the trial, the former police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo told the court that Bárcenas himself helped create the Kitchen operation alongside “a group of journalists”, according to La Voz de Galicia and El Periódico. Villarejo’s defence team has called for his acquittal, arguing that Bárcenas was the one who devised the scheme. Meanwhile, the defence lawyer for the former head of Spain’s financial crime unit, the UDEF, has attacked the accusations against his client as “unfounded”, La Vanguardia reports.
The court will now deliberate and issue a verdict. Observers will be watching for whether the judges accept the defence arguments that the operation was not a state-sponsored conspiracy but rather a plan originating from Bárcenas himself.
