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Former Spanish deputy PM Rato released after arrest

Xinhua, April 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Rodrigo Rato, the former deputy Spanish prime minister and former managing director of the IMF, was released by Spanish police in the early hours of Friday after searches of both his home and offices by police and tax officials lasting over seven hours.

Rato was detained on Thursday under suspicion of fraud, concealment of assets and money laundering after doubts had arisen over money he had declared in 2012.

Rato was allowed to return home after the searches and the investigations will continue. He said he had "confidence in the justice system" and that he was "co-operating with them."

On Thursday, Spain's Minister of Justice Rafael Catala had said the detention showed the law was "the same for everyone" and that "judges and lawyers carry out their investigations and that the institutions guarantee the law is equal for us all."

Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE), demanded the resignation of Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro, who was secretary of state for the economy at the time Rato was deputy prime minister. He also called for the publication of a list of everyone who had taken advantage of the 2012 fiscal amnesty.

Rosa Diez, the leader of UPyD, said that if the government thought that by making Rato "a fall guy," the government could escape corruption allegations, they were wrong as the "whole herd" would be found out.

Podemos' Political Secretary Inigo Errejon pointed out that although Rato was no longer a member of the government minister, he had been the "great economic manager of the PP," and as such his arrest was "extremely serious."

Rato, the former president of Bankia, that needed a Spanish government bailout of around 24 billion U.S. dollars in May 2012, already faces charges for irregularities relating to the stock market launch of that institution.

Rato is also one of 86 former directors of Caja Madrid (which became part of Bankia) who have been charged for use of black credit cards with which they spent around 17 million euros (18.35 million U.S. dollars) between 2003 and 2012 without declaring this income to the Treasury. Endit