Ábalos fights jail term of over 24 years in mask case
More than 24 years in prison: former Spanish transport minister José Luis Ábalos is asking Spain’s Constitutional Court to overturn his conviction in the mask case. His lawyer says the proceedings breached eight of his fundamental rights. The challenge, reported by Europa Press from Madrid on 5 November 2026, comes as the Supreme Court moves to collect payments from the three men convicted in the case.
The evidence Ábalos disputes
Lawyer Marino Turiel wants the verdict set aside and the case returned to the stage before the preliminary hearing. Alternatively, he wants a new ruling that respects the presumption of innocence and the principle that a sentence must be proportionate.
Turiel says the conviction relied heavily on messages selected by the Civil Guard, while the defence was not given the complete contents of any device. He also questions whether evidence outside the case made by co-defendant Víctor de Aldama sufficiently backed Aldama’s claims against Ábalos. Turiel again challenges five of the seven judges who heard the case; an earlier attempt to remove them failed.
The Balearic connection
The lawyer argues that the Supreme Court brought de Aldama and Ábalos’s former adviser Koldo García into the case because their alleged dealings were closely connected, but did not apply the same reasoning to other contracts involving a company linked to de Aldama. He names contracts in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and the Interior Ministry’s area of responsibility. None of those contracts was examined at the trial.
The challenge follows news that the Supreme Court has ordered Ábalos, García and de Aldama to pay a total of 647,000 euros within 15 days, covering fines, money to be recovered and compensation. Ábalos’s fine is 52,500 euros; García’s is 45,750 euros and de Aldama’s is 72,000 euros. García received a 19-year prison sentence and de Aldama a four-year sentence. The Constitutional Court has yet to decide whether Ábalos’s challenge will succeed.
Topics: Court cases
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com