Supreme Court judge orders Spain's former Socialist party boss to be remanded in custody without bail

Supreme Court judge Leopoldo Puente has ordered former Socialist organisation secretary and MP Santos Cerdán to be remanded in custody without bail. At the request of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office, the judge investigating the so-called 'Koldo' corruption case has agreed that the former secretary of organisation of the PSOE should be imprisoned due to the "high risk" of destruction of evidence after the hearing in which he denied the accusations against him.

Cerdán is thought to be behind a web of commission payments in return for giving public building contracts to certain firms. The magistrate has said he is under investigation for the crimes of membership of a criminal organisation, bribery and influence peddling.

The position of the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, has been fundamental in the decision to send Cerdán to prison. The move differs from the measures taken with the other two main defendants in the 'Koldo' case, former minister José Luis Ábalos and adviser Koldo García himself, who are free but with precautionary measures imposed with the support of the chief prosecutor Luzón: withdrawal of their passports, prohibition to leave the country and fortnightly appearances before the judicial authority.

The former number three of the PSOE declared for an hour and a half on Monday; he has been under investigation following a Guardia Civil report that places him, along with former minister of transport Ábalos and his then adviser García, at the epicentre of an alleged scheme to collect commissions in exchange for the rigging of public building contracts.

Cerdán, who has denied all the evidence and maintains that "innocent", has "not taken a single euro" and that he has been the victim of a "political persecution", according to legal sources, arrived at the Supreme Court shortly before 10am accompanied by his lawyer, Benet Salellas, amid great media expectation and shouts of "corrupt".

In his 22-page order, the judge justifies Cerdán's imprisonment on the grounds that "his true economic situation and the possible contacts and/or resources he may have abroad are still unknown". Therefore, he adds, that in his case, unlike Ábalos and García, there is a risk that if he were to remain free "there would be a well-founded danger that he himself could conceal, destroy or alter sources of evidence relevant to the future prosecution".

In short, the investigator gives full credibility to the audio recordings related to the case found by the Guardia Civil in the home of Koldo García, in February 2024, and maintains this is sufficient to imprison Cerdán, home has not yet been searched although his assets are being investigated.

"So explicit are the aforementioned conversations that, in the course of the suspect's statement on Monday, their unequivocal content is not directly questioned," says the resolution, which addresses the validity of the same recordings made surreptitiously by Ábalos' ministerial adviser.

"Needless to add that, if there is no element that, with a minimum of seriousness, allows us to conclude that the recordings could have been manipulated, altered or simulated by the person who obtained them and kept them in his possession, even less could there be for attributing the same conduct to the police force that acted," the order adds.

During his appearance, in which he only answered questions from his lawyer and offered to answer the judge, although the judge did not want to intervene, Cerdán said that he does not know if it is his voice, nor does he "know the date of the recordings, let alone their literalness", which is why he opens the door to the preparation of an expert report to determine their veracity.

"I have not paid Ábalos or Koldo, nor has the PSOE taken any money. I have only received 600 euros from Koldo for a debt that he had with me," said the investigated party member to also deny the alleged illegal financing of the party.

Similarly, the former Socialist leader has denied that he had a stake in Servinabar, one of the key companies in the investigation, and has denied the validity of the "private deed" that he signed with the administrator of the company, Antxon Alonso, investigated in the case, in June 2016.

"The contract says that it was not executed (it was not notarised) and that it was broken a few days later," added Cerdán. The reason for his interest in this company, then a consulting firm, is that in 2015, after a disastrous election result of the party in Navarra, he was close to leaving politics and Alonso offered to work with him, "but it was never fulfilled", he said.

On his interest in public works contracts, as revealed in the recordings made by Koldo García, Cerdán explained that his interventions "were not for the awarding of contracts, but for them to be put out to tender because of the party's commitment to certain projects in its electoral programmes" and that once they were announced "he did not intervene at all".

"I have never seen him and he is lying when he says that he was with me in a cafeteria opposite Ferraz (PSOE headquarters) and that he gave me 15,000 euros for intervening in a contract," he argued.

The suspect denied, therefore, a patrimonial increase - "I still have the same house I've had since 1995, it is mortgaged and all my money is in the current accounts that are already being investigated," he explained to the judge. He said Ábalos was responsible for the fact that Koldo García went from minister's chauffeur to member of Puertos del Estado and adviser of Renfe Mercancías within the transport ministry.

Cerdán tried to dissociate himself from the activities of both the above and refuted the conclusions of the UCO report of 5 June, which gives him a leading role in placing Koldo in the ministry to influence Ábalos.