The Audiencia Nacional, Spain's highest court, decided yesterday that Judge Elpidio José Silva will continue investigations of Caja Madrid's purchase of Citi Bank of Florida when Miguel Blesa was the bank's president. The bank's setback is reflected in the worries of ordinary and preferential shareholders, who are demanding that all guilty parties answer for what happened.
Caja Madrid's former president has been in and out of prison twice throughout a case that many parties are interested in. The Audiencia Nacional's ruling shows that it believes Blesa is not likely to flee the country, and it has asked Judge Silva to continue hearing the case.
It thinks that evidence of Blesa's "illegal activity or wrongful appropriations" should be meted out in the courtroom. The Audiencia Nacional understands that even though Judge Silva "should not have issued his ruling based on complaints from the union Manos Limpias," the judge did not violate Blesa's right to receive a judge predetermined by law. The most important part of the ruling is that it will allow us to figure out what happened at Caja Madrid and it could be a launching pad for starting investigations of other banks that were involved in dubious deals, too.
Various legal and political folk have been applying pressures to Silva in an effort to cover up the truth, which is an embarassing thing to happen in a democratic nation. A disciplinary investigation was opened up on Silva in an attempt to remove him from the case. Independent from how the inquiry is resolved, the Audiencia Nacional has assured that the Blesa case will continue as before and that the people who committed crimes with pay for what they did in due time.
