Judge Requests Photo and Measurements of Dining Room from El Ventorro Owner

Judge continues her investigations into the management of the emergency on the evening of October 29, 2024.

This Monday, one of the 112 supervisors testified, one of the few witnesses whose version partially contradicts the account of Councillor Salomé Pradas.

However, the day also brought other developments in the progress of the inquiries. The magistrate has issued new resolutions. The most significant is an order requiring the owner of the El Ventorro restaurant to provide a photograph and the measurements of the room where the President of the Generalitat and journalist Maribel Vilaplana dined on October 29, 2024. She also demands the invoice for that meal. The amount was paid by the PP, although the reservation was made by the Generalitat.

The restaurateur's statement last Friday surprised the magistrate because it did not match what the journalist had previously described about the famous private room. These are not minor details. The dimensions of the space call into question whether she could not hear anything the president said, even if her intention was to be discreet or focus on her work.

The magistrate explains the request for the image in this regard: "The necessary assessment of the possibility of hearing by those who were in that room the comments or conversations that the president might have made."

It is noteworthy that this room is not part of the restaurant itself. It is a private room belonging to the apartment of the owner's son, as admitted by the restaurateur, and is only lent to friends or very regular and trusted clients, as was the case with the president.

Similarly, the judge requests the invoice for the meal, but also - perhaps more significantly - the order. The restaurateur passed the invoice to the PP but with a generic concept of menus without specifying the dishes and drinks. This is important, according to the magistrate, to infer the "extent of the meal" and when the after-dinner conversation might have started.

The magistrate specifies in her order that the possibility of Vilaplana or the owner of El Ventorro "hearing something during the prolonged stay in the restaurant, nearly four hours, varies according to the different phases of the meal and stay in the venue."

The businessman stated during his testimony that he entered about seven or eight times but did not hear anything Mazón said. "It is not the same if the meal had ended, if the clients were in the after-dinner," the order emphasizes.

Similarly, the judge considers that what was consumed would also justify a later departure from the restaurant and at what point the escorts might have witnessed comments and conversations related to the emergency. It is worth remembering that the last action of the magistrate regarding Mazón's role has been the summoning of the escorts and the driver, professionals who can shed light on that afternoon, the president's knowledge of the emergency, and finally, the transfer to Cecopi where he arrived at 20:28.