The Provincial Court has rejected the appeal presented by the former Minister of Finance, Employment and Commerce of Melilla Dunia Almansouri Umpiérrez (CPM) and keeps her in prison without bail almost two months after his arrest in an alleged case of “vote buying” because although he does not see a risk of flight “due to his Moroccan ancestry”, as the court of first instance held, he does, however, maintain the risk of destruction of evidence.
The same fate is expected to befall the president of the Coalition for Melilla Mustafa Aberchán and three other former advisors of the Melilla Government between 2019 and 2023 (Rachid Bussián, Hassán Mohatar and Mohamed Ahmed) arrested on March 5 and 6 for various crimes as a criminal organizationembezzlement, influence peddling and other irregularities in the granting of some 300 minor contracts worth more than six million euros.
In the judicial order, the higher court has rejected the request for the release of the first of the five cases in which they have been presented appeals against orders of imprisonment without bail decreed by the Court of Instruction number 2 of Melilla.
Specifically, in that of the former Minister of Finance and current CPM deputy, Dunia Almansouri, who has been denied provisional release because, although the Court He no longer talks about the possibility that he could flee on a motorcycle. of water or boat to Morocco, as indicated in the arrest warrant of the investigating court, however, it does maintain the possibility of destruction of evidence.
In the resolution, the Provincial Court has admitted that “according to the above and taking into account the personal circumstances of the person under investigation, there is no risk of flight, except for that inherent in the initial moments of the investigation in view of the seriousness of the penalties and that in itself would justify the measure adopted, in accordance with reiterated doctrine of the Constitutional Court, which admits that at the beginning of the investigation the seriousness of the penalty may initially constitute sufficient reason to affirm a danger effective and relevant leak”.
The speaker points out that “according to the documentation provided with the appeal, it is clear that the person under investigation is of Spanish nationality and has proven personal, family and professional roots in Melilla. city where he lives with his family. Furthermore, he stressed that “the person under investigation resides in Melilla, in the family home, with her husband and four children. Two of them are minors. Professionally, she has worked for 26 years as an employee of (…) and as a Deputy of the Local Assembly”.
However, although he no longer sees the same risk of escape after his arrest at the beginning of March, the Court rejects his release because “in coincidence chronological with the arrest of the person under investigation and subsequent imprisonment “The entry and search was carried out at his home and at the rest of the homes of those investigated, with the intervention of computer media.”
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office considers that they can provide new evidence that could open new avenues of investigation that could be frustrated if the person under investigation is released,” he indicated, while also highlighting the “persistence of summary secrecy regarding of other pieces of the Previous Procedures”.
“In light of all this, there is a risk of alteration of the means of “proof as a cause to justify the agreed provisional detention” The Court has emphasized to deny the provisional release of Dunia Almansouri, a fate that could also be suffered by the other four CPM charges in prison since March 5-6.
This decision goes against the interests of the former Melilla tax advisor. It can mark the future of the other four CPM positions in prison since March 5 and 6, 2024, such as Mustafa Aberchán, in a prison in Cantabria; Mohamed Ahmed Al-lal in a prison in Granada and Rachid Bussián and Hassán Mohatar in the Melilla Penitentiary Center.
The five imprisoned are part of the almost fifty people detained in the so-called “Operation Santiago-Rusadir” carried out by the National Police under the intervention of the Court of 1st Instance and Instruction number 2, which includes businessmen and individuals, for the alleged commission of the crimes of fraud in contracting, prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and membership in a criminal organization.”
