Manos Limpias, the national group dedicated to fighting corruption in public office, has announced that they have lodged a personal criminal complaint (querella) against Jose Griñán (President of Andalucía), Manuel Chaves (ex-President of Andalucía and third VP of Spain under Zapatero in the last government), and the Andalucian ex-ministers Gaspar Zarrías and José Antonio Viera.
The complaint alledges that the politicians spent hundreds of millions of euros of public funds via slush funds in paying off friends and family via the bestowing of large public redundency payments, or pension funds, despite the benefactors not being eligable for the money.
The case is already under investigation by a Judge in Seville, known as the ERE scandal, but the case is proceeding slowly and so far the highest politician to be implicated is the Ex-Director General of Work, who signed off on the payments.
Manos Limpias alledge that there is more than sufficient evidence to directly implicate the current and previous Presidents of Andalucía in this corruption scandal, after the Guardia Civil’s financial crimes unit released, on Friday, the results of an investigation that directly implicates Griñán and Chaves.
The anti-corruption group says that public justice is running too slowly, and they have bought the private complaint to speed up the process.
If a Judge accepts the complaint, the issue will be taken over by the Public Prosecutor and charges lodged. Given that Chaves remains a national MP, the case, if accepted, will go directly to the Supreme Court, the only court able to sit judgement on a serving MP.
Manos Limpias translates as clean hands. They are not above being dragged into political infighting, but have been busy recently denouncing anyone who ever ran a bank in Spain, so it’s nice to see them back to their original mission statement.