Former Health Advisor Jon Darpón refused to charge former General Director of the Basque Health Service Maria Jesús Múgica on 2 Vitoria-Gasteiz. Courts of Investigation. According to Judge Cristina Rodríguez Ruiz, in the case of leaks from the Osakidetza tests 2016-2017, the two members of the management team "did not commit or promote illegal conduct".

The indictment was filed in an LAB syndicate car released on 1 September. It requests the charge of other posts of the Basque Institute of Public Administration of Osakidetza (IVAP), Darpon and Mugika, in fraud of the OPE by specialist physicians. On the other hand, they are charged with crimes of disclosure of secrets, fraud in recruitment, prevention and refusal to prosecute crimes.

The judge, for his part, has rejected the charges of the Criminal Chamber. Rodríguez Ruiz said that "the persons referred to in the indictment do not belong to any association except the Basque Government, Osakidetza or the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP), which neither promote crime nor encourage illicit behaviour using institutional structures". Following the judge ' s rejection of the allegations, the PNV has shown its full support for Darpon.

For its part, the trade union, which exercises the popular accusation, has strongly criticised the fact that the management has not accepted its role in the leaks. “We do not share the idea that some discordant elements were acting leaving the whole world aside. On the contrary, we are convinced that it has been Osakidetza’s leadership that has designed an effective strategy to ensure leaks, as well as their impunity.”

According to LAB, the management has used “smoke curtains” to hide “this corrupt practice.” The leaks could not be produced in isolation, but the need for a system to make it possible has been argued. For this reason, the management team is considering recourse to the judgment, which has not yet been appealed.

The ESK trade union has also acted as a popular indictment in the case of test fraud in 2016-2017, and has transferred the same opinion to the health system management team. The ESK representative in Osakidetza, Patxi Nicolau, has made it clear that the union does not want to do "the witch hunt of opponents". The objective of ESK is to denounce the “customer system” implemented for decades in public job offers in the health field, as reported to eldiario.es.

Investigate nine other people

Although the crimes charged to the management are not to be analysed, the investigating court has admitted that nine more persons from different specialties are being investigated. At the request of the ESK trade union, the persons linked to the tests of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, Urology and Cardiology that are being carried out in the Basque Country are included in the list. With these data, a total of 20 are imputed in the cause, although there may still be more.

In fact, the Court of Inquiry in Palma de Mallorca has decided to extend the investigation period for another six months: On January 29, 2022, the trail that the trial scam will follow in the courts ends. On the other hand, at the request of the Public Prosecutor ' s Office, nine witnesses of the aforementioned crimes will be called to testify.

Petitions by the people ' s indictment

The ESK trade union denounced on 26 July last that it found "more than indications of fraud" in ten categories of labour fraud. Thus, he asked to investigate four anesthesiology opponents, five of angiology, five of digestion, five of traumatology, five of neurosurgery, two of neurophysiology, three of urology and three of cardiology, and two of anesthesiology and urology jurors.

Last June, following a request from LAB, another four people were investigated, at which time the number of defendants rose to eleven. The last ones were the head of the Traumatology service of the Alto Deba area, two authors of the first study of Plastic and Reparative Surgery and one opponent of the category of Plastic and Reparative Surgery.

The union also claimed that the IVAP and Osakidetza “stole” the courts information about what happened: “During this operation, at least two meetings and several emails have been intentionally hidden, as well as a report analyzing test notes.” During this month, in addition to Jon Darpón and Maria Jesús Mugika, they requested the investigation of other members of the management: Among the attendees were Juan Carlos Soto, Andoni Arcelay, Xabier Balerdi and Miriam Aparicio, among others.