Martínez requested the measure on Friday for allegedly containing the secret official chats and affecting his privacy and the magistrate has provisionally agreed upon it pending the report from the Prosecutor’s Office
The judge in the Kitchen case, Manuel García Castellón, has suspended the access of the parties in person to 23 WhatsApp chats extracted three years ago from the mobile phone of the former number two of the Interior, Francisco Martínez, after he asked him to do so on Friday. The content of the chats marked part of the news last week by containing evidence of the dirty war of the Government of Mariano Rajoy against the Catalan independence process and Podemos.

In an order issued this Monday, García Castellón affirms that, due to the urgent nature of Martínez’s request and even before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, “it is appropriate to accede” to Martínez’s request, who faces 15 years in prison for the parapolice espionage to Luis Bárcenas with reserved funds.
As reported by Europa Press on Friday, Martínez alleged in his letter that in the chats “information appears regarding issues that are directly related to public security to which he had access at the time in which he held the position of Secretary of State for Security ” and added that, according to him, it is “classified” information, protected by the Official Secrets Law. Martínez also alleged that his publication in the media violated his privacy.

Martínez’s cell phone was seized by investigators, with a court order, on March 14, 2020, almost three years ago. The judge learned the content of those chats shortly after, according to sources in the case. The most relevant content of the messages for the investigation of the Kitchen case had been extracted from the phone by the Internal Affairs Unit to incorporate their reports.

Judge Manuel García Castellón imposed severe measures at the time that prevented the parties from accessing the contents of the phone of the former Secretary of State for Security in its entirety, but this month, when the Kitchen trial was set in sight, the magistrate had decided that only the chats from which some phrases for police reports were extracted are known in their entirety by the parties. Its content, therefore, may be used in court.