Overview

• Eleven defendants, including former Hospital General director Sergio Blasco, went on trial before the First Section of the Audiencia de València in Sala Tirant I, with hearings scheduled through December.
• Blasco’s lawyer, César Olmos, asked the court to annul the entire proceeding from the abbreviated-procedure opening order, alleging a lack of indicia and procedural defects.
• The defense invoked Supreme Court doctrine against prospecting investigations to argue the case lacks a defined investigative basis.
• Anticorrupción pursues charges of embezzlement, fraud against the administration, influence peddling, prevarication and bribery tied to management of the hospital between 2005 and 2014.
• The defense highlighted that the 2014 probe was split into three pieces and that two were later archived, including inquiries into Abucasis contracting and a hospital project in Peru.