The former president of the Generalitat Valenciana and former Popular Party minister Eduardo Zaplana, has been sentenced to 10 years and five months in prison for the ITV plot in the so-called ‘Erial case’.
He insists, however, that there is “no objective evidence” of his participation in any crime and he has announced that he will appeal the sentence.
The court ruling finds him guilty of receiving commissions for the awarding of ITV station contracts in the Valencian Community between 1997 and 2003 and channelling the monies through a complex corporate structure both in Spain and in countries such as Panama or Luxembourg and Andorra.
The court found him guilty of the crimes of fraud, bribery, falsification of documents and money laundering and also imposed, in addition to the prison sentence, a total of 17 years and 10 months of disqualification from employment or public office, three years of disqualification from the exercise of his profession and fines totalling more than 25 million euros. However, it acquitted him of the crime of belonging to a criminal group.
Following the verdict, the former minister said he feels “disappointed” at having been convicted “on evidence based on opaque pacts and agreements and without any objective evidence” of his involvement in the events.
Meanwhile, the current President of the Community, Carlos Mazón, has asked for “respect” for the sentence of Zaplana adding that the PP distances itself from the former president of the Generalitat and defending that there is a now “a new generation” of politicians in the party.
