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Strategic litigation #CasoCastor


On Tuesday February 27th, 2018, we launched #CasoCastor; a strategic litigation suing five Spanish ex-Ministers (both from ruling PP party and PSOE) and Real Madrid's president for corruption.

From the Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG), Xnet and IDHC -with our legal team-, we have filed this citizen lawsuit that opens a criminal complaint in the National Court to purge responsibilities and end fraud and impunity.

Castor is a pharaonic gas storage project led by Florentino Pérez’s ACS, executed thanks to the complicity of the PSOE and PP governments, with their Ministers Clos (PSOE), Sebastian (PSOE), Soria (PP) and others. A machine of producing earthquakes, that has never worked and that will cost us more than 3 billion euros, that they expect citizens to pay.

Web page: https://casocastor.net/

Help spread the word:
TW: https://twitter.com/CasoCastor/status/970647103121907713
FB: https://www.facebook.com/NoPagoCastor/posts/375508069583962
Telegram channel: https://t.me/nopagocastor
Newsletter: https://listas.casocastor.net/mailman/postorius/lists/noticias.listas.casocastor.net/

At the Central Magistrate’s Court of the National High Court in Madrid, the “Castor Case” citizen criminal lawsuit was presented against:

  • Former Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism JOAN CLOS MATHEU – PSOE (September 8, 2006 – April 13, 2008)
  • Former Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism MIGUEL SEBASTIÁN GASCÓN – PSOE (April 14, 2008 – December 22, 2011)
  • Former Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism JOSÉ MANUEL SORIA LÓPEZ – PP (December 22, 2011 – April 15, 2016)
  • President of the ACS construction company and majority shareholder of the ESCAL UGS SL, FLORENTINO PÉREZ RODRÍGUEZ
  • Former Minister of Development MAGDALENA ÁLVAREZ ARZA – PSOE (April 18, 2004 – April 7, 2009) and former Vice President of the European Investment Bank
  • Former Minister of Environment and Agriculture ELENA ESPINOSA MANGAN – PSOE (April 14, 2008 – October 20, 2010)
  • President of the company ESCAL UGS SL RECAREDO DEL POTRO GÓMEZ
  • Former Energy Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism IGNASI NIETO MAGALDI (September 15, 2006 – April 17, 2008)
  • Former Minister of the Environment, Water, Town Planning and Housing of the Generalitat Valenciana JUAN GABRIEL COTINO FERRER (August 31, 2009 – June 22, 2011)

for their responsibilities in the Castor project, with allegations of PREVARICATION, FRAUD IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND EMBEZZLEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS.

Further details and complaint available for download: https://casocastor.net/castor-case-citizen-lawsuit/

Citizens are facing the possibility of having to assume the cost of 1,350,730,000 euros (which, with interest, amounts to 2,419,940,000 euros) either through their gas bills, as has happened to date, or through the state budget.

A coordinated citizen action has been carried out, with the following OBJECTIVES:

NON-PAYMENT
– Non-payment of the compensation scheme, whatever the mechanism used, and the “return” of previous payments.
– The dismantling of the Castor Platform and that the cost of this is imputed to the companies responsible for its failure.
– To show that Castor’s costs, together with other costs included in bills for basic services, are illegitimate, and generate and aggravate energy poverty in the State, affecting 11% of the population.

CORRUPTION
– To denounce once again the connivance of governments with operations which are destructive to the welfare of the population in a context of systemic and systematic corruption.
– To shine light on the shared responsibilities of the PSOE and the PP governments, which justify and even congratulate themselves for having submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Court (PSOE) and an appeal of ‘harm to the public interest’ of Article 14 to the Supreme Court (PP), but who have been facilitators of this scam-project.

ENERGY POLITICS
– To highlight the “gas bubble” that has left the gas system in deficit due to the construction of infrastructures that have fallen into disuse or are being used much less than expected.
– Criticism of the promotion of gas through a geopolitical discourse of dependence on Russia, which works as an excuse to promote a fossil fuel which requires large and expensive infrastructure, especially in a country like Spain, which enjoys excellent conditions for renewable energy generation.
– Criticism of the model of large infrastructures, large investments and large corporations, which imposes itself above the needs of the population, causing social and environmental impacts and generating illegitimate debt.

CITIZEN COLLABORATION AGAINST THE DEFAULT FUNCTIONS OF THE INSTITUTIONS
– We ask for citizen collaboration to gather sensitive information that until now has not come to light. For this we have enabled an anonymous and safe e-Mailbox to receive such information with all guarantees for the sources.
– We work at Spanish and international level to coordinate action in the following areas: new energy models; anti-corruption; new governance of energy resources.

Having detected the following ANOMALIES:
– The construction company is also the concession holder and has hardly any competitors
– The contract includes a clause that admits fraud or negligence
– Rapid increase in project costs
– Ad hoc modification of sea boundaries
– Several anomalies in environmental and seismic impact reports
– Extension of the concession’s withdrawal period to prevent its expiry
– No distribution of damages or moratorium has been proposed

In face of corruption and corporate-political collusion in Spain, citizens organise and act!

Action taken up in the Spanish press.

Video of the press conference.

Promoters of the iniciative:
Observatorio de la Deuda en la Globalización (ODG)
Equipo multidisciplinar de investigadores que elabora análisis crítico de procesos complejos y/o estructurales del sistema económico y político.
Xnet
Proyecto activista que trabaja en diferentes campos relacionados con los derechos digitales y la democracia en red.
IDHC
Asociación de defensa de los derechos humanos.

Collaborators of the campaign:
– Red para la sobiranía energética (Xse)
Plataforma que proponen un cambio en el modelo energético para que sea democrático, sostenible, descentralizado y bajo control ciudadano.
– Alianza contra la Pobreza Energética (APE)
Asociación de afectados por la pobreza energética.
– @15MpaRato – Querella Ciudadana Caso Bankia 
Impulsores del caso Bankia, Tarjetas Black y Preferentes en la Audiencia Nacional.

– Nuevo Modelo Energético
Inicitiva que promueve un cambio de modelo energetico. 
– Observatorio DESC.
Plataforma de defensa de derechos económicos, sociales y culturales.
– Plataforma Ciudadana en Defensa de las Terres del Senia
Grupo local de afectados por los seísmos y los efectos sobre el territorio del Proyecto Castor.
– Aplaca – @CastorAfectados
Asociación de afectados por la Plataforma Castor que reclama indemnizaciones por el riesgo asumido como consecuencia de la activación de esta plataforma.

 

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