Berta Linares, socialist mayor of Maracena (Granada, 22,293 inhabitants) and candidate for re-election in next Sunday’s elections, questioned this Friday before the media that the lifting of the secret of the case in which her ex-partner is being investigated for the kidnapping of a councilor from his government team, which occurred last February, occurred three days before the next elections on May 28. The councilor, whom the court proposes to investigate as inducing illegal retention, has assured that on the day of the kidnapping she contacted her then partner because the Civil Guard asked her to. “When everything is clarified and our innocence is proven, who is going to give us back free elections? Who is going to give us back our tarnished image and the damage done to our colleagues and families? We will not be able to recover it ”, she has assured in a brief appearance in which she has not admitted questions.
The lifting of secrecy has allowed access to judicial resolutions indicating that Linares spoke and saw the kidnapper shortly after he illegally detained his government partner. In a municipal plenary session held the day after these events, Linares denied having seen Pedro Gómez, his then partner and the only one investigated to date. A judicial order issued yesterday, May 25, states that the surveillance cameras recorded a meeting of about six minutes between the councilor and her then partner between 12:22 and 12:28, next to a town game room. At that time, Gómez still did not know that the councilor had managed to escape from the place where he had left her hand and foot tied. This Friday, the mayoress has stressed that all the contacts she had with him were agreed with the Civil Guard. “I called him at the request of the Civil Guard to put an end to it,” she said.
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The mayoress has said that her lawyers are analyzing the summary, which the parties have had access to for just 24 hours. “They have not found a single piece of evidence or evidence that incriminates us,” she has defended. Linares has also spoken on behalf of one of her trusted councilors, Antonio García Leyva, and Noel López Linares, former councilor of the municipality and current number three of the Andalusian PSOE. “We are not investigated, nor charged,” he stressed.
The order issued yesterday demanded that the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia study the indications of the alleged participation of the councilor, the mayor and leader of the Andalusian PSOE in the kidnapping as alleged inducers or for the alleged crime of conspiracy. The investigative court number 5 of Granada makes this request to the higher court because the former mayor of Maracena, Noel López, is currently a regional deputy and is capped, something that forces the judge to refer the proceedings to this court, which must decide whether to investigate him or not.
The investigating judge, who has kept the case secret since February 24, is holding the alleged kidnapper in pretrial detention.
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Noel López, Berta Linares and Antonio García Leyva are the strong people of the PSOE of Maracena. López, current organization secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, was mayor of the Granada municipality for more than a decade. Berta Linares replaced him in 2021. García Leyva, who began his political career with López, is a councilor for Urban Planning.
The judge has ordered the analysis of the mobiles of the three from September of last year until the end of March: calls and location. Although he has determined that there is no conclusive evidence indicating that they may have participated in organizing the kidnapping, he considers it necessary for the Andalusian court to continue investigating. The story given by the kidnapper refers to a supposed meeting in which the idea of kidnapping was encouraged.
In the appearance this Friday, Linares has said that everything is based on the “accusation of a person”, in reference to his ex-partner, who has a “bipolar disorder”. According to Linares, the Civil Guard has shown that this story and the accusations are “false” and, consequently, they are considering appealing the judge’s decision asking that the role they played be investigated.
Finally, Berta Linares has addressed the opposition. “Less accusations and falsehoods”, she has requested, to later demand that they not try to “win in court” what they are not capable of winning on the street.
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