Leading suspect in corruption case implicates Rajoy's People's Party

One of the main defendants in the trail of the "Gurtel" corruption case has deeply implicated the People's Party (PP) of Mariano Rajoy in his testimony.

In declarations that began on Thursday and continue on Friday, Francisco Correa, who faces a 125 year prison sentence for his role as the leader of the macro "cash for favors" scandal, said that he spent more time in the PP headquarters in Madrid than in his own office.

He also admitted it was common practice to give gifts to PP officials in return for being given lucrative public contracts.

"I'm used to giving gifts to big companies that do business with me: why wouldn't I give gifts to a man who is giving me a lot of business? ... It's a usual practice," said Correa in his testimony.

Correa is one of 37 defendants in the trial, along with the former PP Treasurer Luis Barcenas and explained he worked as a middle-man in helping organize the division of public contracts with companies involved in the case and PP members.

"If we were successful the company paid a commission. I kept part of it and Barcenas kept the other part," said Correa, whose relationship with the PP had begun in the 1990s after he had begun organizing events and meetings for the party.

Barcenas is accused of using some of the money earned through accepting bribes to run a parallel series of accounts for the PP, as well as siphoning off millions of euros into Swiss bank accounts. He is expected to make his declaration next week.

The People's Party doesn't face any criminal charges itself, but the party will have to declare in court given that it benefitted financially from the scandal. However, Correa did take some pressure off Rajoy when he said the corrupt practices had ended when Rajoy replaced Jose Maria Aznar as party leader.

There was "no feeling," between himself and the acting Prime Minister, explained Correa. Endit