Joe Duggan (Reporter)
FOUR EX-PP ministers have denied being receiving illegal backhanders in the Gurtel political corruption case.
Appearing in court, Javier Arenas, Ángel Acebes, Jaime Mayor Oreja and Rodrigo Rato rejected allegations that the party’s former treasurer Luis Barcenas had paid them from a slush fund.
They were called as witnesses by Barcenas’ lawyer to shed light on the PP’s role in the scandal.
“I have never received euro of anyone else’s money into my pay, and nobody has ever suggested that to men,” said Arenas, who served as the party’s secretary general from 1999 to 2003.
“I never received money from Barcenas. Everything I received I have declared to the tax man.”
The Gurtel case into political corruption within the PP party has been ongoing since 2009, with Barcenas accused of running slush funds to pay party officials.
