In February of last year, the head of Central Instruction Court 5 began an investigation following the complaint filed by Podemos against the former Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martínez, the former DAO of the Police Eugenio Pino, and members of the so-called 'patriotic police.' The complaint was based on the data dump from Martínez's phone in the Kitchen piece of the Villarejo case.
The judge did not consider it necessary to investigate former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz or former National Police Chief Ignacio Cosidó. According to statements made before the judge this morning, in a meeting, Bonifacio Díaz delivered "police files" on members of Podemos. Attempts were also made to locate individuals in Venezuela in order to delve deeper into the investigation to obtain information about the funding of supporters of Pablo Iglesias by Chavismo.
The investigation focuses on determining whether there was an alleged police inquiry into Podemos in 2016 by prominent members of the Police through contacts with high-ranking Venezuelan government officials. On the other hand, Nervis Villalobos and Javier Ochoa Alvarado, former deputy ministers in Hugo Chávez's government in Venezuela, testified this Monday in the investigation conducted by the National Court judge, Santiago Pedraz.
Villalobos mentioned that he met with Bonifacio Díaz Sevillano, an employee of Eugenio Pino, who requested information about individuals related to Podemos. For his part, Javier Ochoa revealed that he had two meetings with the DAO of the National Police, Eugenio Pino, during which they sought details about the origins of Podemos and the connection of its members with Venezuelan officials. Both witnesses support this account, which had already been presented by Villalobos in the Congress of Deputies in November during the investigation committee on the 'Operation Cataluña.'
