MADRID – A Spanish court has opened a separate branch of investigation on Friday against the wife of Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, over alleged malfeasance and fraud involving EU funds.
While he attends a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, a Madrid court decided to open a new line of inquiry into Begoña Gómez, his wife, regarding potential irregularities in a series of EU-funded public tenders.
Since 2024, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, known as EPPO, has been the body responsible for conducting the investigation into multi-million public contracts awarded to businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, via alleged mediation of the premier’s wife.
The EPPO dropped the case and sent the files back to Spain, which now the Madrid-based instructing judge is using to examine whether a contract by state digital agency Red.es was rigged to favour the businessman.
The two new charges add to the primary probe against Gómez. The judge accuses her of charges including influence peddling, and corruption in business dealings, related to her academic work at the Complutense University of Madrid.
It is precisely due to her status as the prime minister’s wife, the judge noted in the indictment ruling last April, that she benefited from the expansion, funding and operations of her university chair.
On Monday, the judge summoned Gómez to a preliminary hearing once the investigation concluded – a key step to determine whether to send her to a jury trial, and impose precautionary measures, or dismiss the case.
The court is also indicting a former advisor in Sánchez’s office, Cristina Álvarez, who allegedly assisted her in her private business dealings, as well as businessman Barrabés.
Gómez has maintained her innocence, while Sánchez has repeatedly claimed that there is a judicial conspiracy against him – a discourse echoed by some of his ministers, including Félix Bolaños, at the helm of the justice ministry.
Yet the new probe increases the pressure on Sánchez as graft scandals mount around his inner circle.
Spain’s graft scandals pile pressure on Pedro Sánchez
MADRID – Get ready for another big week when it comes to Spain’s series of…
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Just last week concluded a trial of his brother, David Sánchez, at a regional court.
An impending sentence at the Supreme Court is expected shortly linked to his former minister and right-hand, José Luis Ábalos, whilst many of his former allies, including his predecessor and mentor, ex-PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been placed under investigation over alleged corruption.
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Source:
www.euractiv.com