A Spanish judge has ordered Begoña Gómez, the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, to stand trial on corruption charges and barred her from leaving the country, the Guardian reported on June 20.
Judge Juan Carlos Peinado told Gómez, 55, to surrender her passport and to report to court twice a month, according to a court order released on Saturday. She will be tried by jury on a date that has not been set. Earlier, after a two-year investigation, she had been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds. She denies any wrongdoing.
The case began with a complaint from Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links.
Government response
Sánchez has repeatedly called the case against his wife baseless and a politically motivated smear. He has accused political and media opponents of going after his family, and has questioned the impartiality of some judges.
Government sources said the judge’s latest decisions only confirmed “the persecution, obsession, and disproportionate actions of a judge who has conducted an investigation that clearly lacks any public purpose, and which is motivated solely by political reasons.” The Socialist party posted on X that Gómez “has been subjected to judicial and political persecution for two years. Today’s development is another step in that process.”
Police unions object
One passage in Peinado’s order drew anger from police. He explained the travel ban by suggesting that officers assigned to protect Gómez as the prime minister’s wife could help her flee. “There’s no doubt that these officers, at a given moment, and acting on their own initiative, or following orders from their superiors, could be the very ones who collaborate” in such an effort, he wrote.
The JUPOL police union called the remarks “utterly outrageous” and demanded he retract them. The United Police Union called them “profoundly worrying” and wrote to the interior minister asking him to defend officers’ integrity. The General Council of the Judiciary, which oversees Spain’s judges, was reported to have called an urgent Monday meeting to decide whether to open disciplinary action against Peinado.
Other cases around the government
The Gómez case is one of several corruption investigations around Sánchez, who took power in 2018 promising to end the graft that had engulfed the conservative People’s party. Sánchez is not named in any of them. His brother David is accused of influence peddling, and former transport minister José Luis Ábalos is accused of taking kickbacks on public contracts. Both deny it.
Former Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who governed from 2004 to 2011, was placed under investigation last month for alleged influence peddling. He defended his innocence at hearings this week.
