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Seven years in prison for Alfredo Prada of the Popular Party for the City of Justice case
- September 12, 2024
Alfredo Prada's conviction
TheAudiencia Nacionalhas issued a historic ruling by sentencing Alfredo Prada , former vice president and former Minister of Justice of the Community of Madrid, to seven years in prison for his involvement in the failed City of Justice promoted by Esperanza Aguirre .
The court has accused a total of five people of the lack of control in the contracting of the macro-project, making it clear that this case reflects the lack of supervision in the management of public resources. Three of these convicted persons will have to compensate the Community of Madrid with more than 40 million euros .
Political reactions
The ruling has not gone down well with the opposition in the Community of Madrid. The general secretary of the PSOE in Madrid , Juan Lobato , has demanded that the current president Isabel Díaz Ayuso provide explanations and apologize to Madrid society for wasting hundreds of millions of euros on a project that ultimately did not prosper.
The ruling condemns Prada for a "continued" crime of prevarication, in conjunction with a continued crime of aggravated embezzlement. In total, 24 contracts are being evaluated , with a total value of 40 million euros and all of them tendered between 2005 and 2011 .
Details of the sentence
Apart from Blanco, the court also sentenced four employees of the project's management team, who were considered necessary collaborators in the mismanagement of public funds. However, the sentence for them has been set at three and a half years . The convicted employees are Isabelino Baños (technical general director), Alicio de las Heras (financial director), Andrés Gómez Gordo (director of the Security area) and Félix José García de Castro (legal advisor).
Compensation to the Community of Madrid
The former vice president, along with Baños, De Las Heras and Gómez Gordo, must compensate the Community of Madrid with a total of 40,482,735.78 euros
Seriousness of crimes
Despite the conviction, the court has acquitted the defendants of the crime of fraud against public administrations. It considers that the embezzlement in the project is extremely serious, highlighting that the contract signed with Foster & Partners and the payment to the consultants involved has cost more than 13 million euros of public funds. This, together with the other 23 contracts, has raised the total sum to 40 million euros.
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