In his testimony before the Catarroja judge investigating the criminal case about the flood, the former operational head of the emergency confessed that on that day he was unaware of the withdrawal of his personnel from the Barranco del Poyo, whose overflow caused the tragedy. He added that he learned of this movement “days later”.
Furthermore, he explained that at 6:13 PM, after the Cecopi was alerted to the danger of the Forata dam breaking, he proposed a text for the alert message to be sent to citizens. This text asked the population to remain in their homes. According to his statement in court, “nobody” equated this with a confinement or suggested that such a recommendation could not be made.
The text was finally sent at 8:11 PM, but without the express order for people not to leave home and only with the recommendation to avoid travel.
“"In his testimony before the Catarroja judge investigating the criminal case about the flood, the former operational head of the emergency confessed that on that day he was unaware of the withdrawal of his personnel from the Barranco del Poyo, whose overflow caused the tragedy, but learned of this movement 'days later'."
The former president's driver also appeared in court, where he explained to the judge that the Es-Alert sounded in the car when they were still in Valencia on their way to L'Eliana, where the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) was being held.
As a witness, the driver detailed that, at lunchtime, the former president, accompanied by two escorts, left the Palau de la Generalitat on foot (around 2:00 PM “past”) without giving him any indication of whether he would need him that afternoon or not. He added that, five hours later, he intended to refuel the car along with the escorts' vehicle, but they did not manage to do so and returned to the Palau after a call from the former president's secretary asked him to take the former president to L'Eliana, where they arrived at 8:28 PM, according to security cameras.
