The Prosecutor’s Office supported the decision of the judge in the “Koldo case” to order, on October 6 last year, the remote control of the cell phone of businessman Víctor de Aldama, the alleged perpetrator of the “conspiracy”, a measure which, unlike intervention telephones, allows remote access to files stored on electronic devices and even deleted from the device.
The defense of the president of Zamora CF filed a complaint with the judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno – who is investigating the millionaire distribution of commissions in the allocation of masks in 2020 by Transport, Interior and Health and the autonomous governments of the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands – on this subject the measure was “excessive and disproportionate”but the anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Romeral opposed his appeal and criticizes the investigator for having provided “no argument or justification” to support his complaint, limiting himself to “listing the resolutions issued by this court accepting the practice of technological investigative measures”. “.
In a document to which LA RAZÓN had access, the prosecution explains that thanks to this remote control, agents can know “not only what exists on a device at a given time, but also what is added or removed during the measurement period.
Anti-corruption admits that with this measure “there is no much more intense interference“than with direct searches, the legal regulations are therefore more demanding. In this case for example – explains the prosecutor – “a police search subsequently validated by the judge” is not possible, even in an emergency or when This involves extending the registry to other computer systems.
The ability to intercept telematics communications through remote recording of computer equipment is also “much more complex than other forms of communications interception.” To the point that, in this case – remember Anticorruption – “due to technical difficulties it could not be executed” the measure.
“Remote review” of files
Regardless, the Prosecutor’s Office defends that the judicial resolution challenged by Aldama – who, according to the summary, met Begoña Gómez, wife of Pedro Sánchez, and the CEO of Globalia, Javier Hidalgo, on dates coinciding with the rescue of the company- “duly specifies the purpose of the register, its scope, the form of access to the system via software installationthe authorized agents for the execution of the measure” and the authorization, where applicable, “to make copies and keep them, as well as the measures to guarantee the recorded data.”
Aldama’s defense also complained that the instructor’s resolution did not specify the software that was going to be used to install this remote. But the prosecutor responds that this software “is not a public access program”, but rather “it was a Trojan horse -software which would allow, remotely and telematically, the examination at a distance and without the knowledge of its owner or user of the extraction of information contained or stored in the device-“.
Prosecutor Romeral insists that “due to technical problems” this access “was not possible”, so “it should not be particularly relevant to proceed now to clarify what was the specific program used”.
Likewise, it refers to the agreement of the Council of Ministers of June 6, 2014, which grants, in a generic manner, the secret classificationwithin the meaning of the law on official secrets, “the structure, organization, means and operational techniques used in the fight against organized crime by state security forces and bodies, as well as to their sources and any information or data that may be revealed to them.”
Article 588 of the Code of Criminal Procedure – let us remember – regulates the possibility of carrying out remote searches of computer equipment by two means, “the use of data and identification codes and the installation of software” . And remote recordings made through the use of “spy programs,” he explains, “are more complex.”
Of course, regulations limit its use to a series of offenses, he points out, “among which criminal organizationwho is one of the people investigated as part of this procedure.”
He therefore considers that the resolution of Judge Ismael Moreno accepting the measure is “in accordance with the law” and therefore requests the dismissal of Aldama’s appeal.