Former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz told the Audiencia Nacional on Thursday that he first heard of Operación Kitchen two years after it began, via media reports. His former deputy Francisco Martínez, who testified earlier, denied the operation existed and described it instead as a lawful intelligence inquiry.
Fernández Díaz stated that no one in the PP conveyed concern over Bárcenas’ papers. “Nadie en el PP me lo transmitió,” he said. He denied ordering any operation against the former treasurer and rejected the authenticity of messages linking him to Martínez.
Martínez, for his part, claimed only a “operación de inteligencia” existed to investigate Bárcenas’ funds and denied ordering hard-drive thefts or illegal surveillance. “Yo presumo que actuaban dentro de la legalidad,” he declared.
Both defendants, for whom prosecutors seek 15 years in prison on charges of embezzlement and privacy offenses, answered only their lawyers and the court. The testimony occurred in the trial examining alleged spying on former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas.
