The two-year-long legal saga of B. Gomez is one of several corruption scandals threatening the left-wing government of P. Sanchez.
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Judge Juan Carlos Peinado launched the investigation in April 2024 to determine whether B. Gomez used her position as P. Sanchez’s wife for personal gain. She and the prime minister deny that anything illegal was done.
The case relates to the establishment and management of a department at Madrid’s Complutense University, which B. Gomez was one of the heads of, as well as suspected misuse of public resources and personal connections for private interests.
J. C. Peinado completed the investigation in April and charged B. Gomez with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business transactions, and illegal appropriation of funds.
He ordered a jury trial and banned B. Gomez from leaving the country – measures that her legal team appealed.
The Madrid provincial court stated in a release that it upheld two charges of influence peddling and embezzlement but dismissed the charges of corruption in business transactions and illegal appropriation of funds.
The court also lifted B. Gomez’s travel ban but did not set a trial date. This decision is final.
“Harassment and persecution”
P. Sanchez dismissed the charges as a right-wing attempt to damage his government, as the case was initiated following a complaint from an anti-corruption group linked to the far right.
“Anyone familiar with the investigation knows this is a political case arising from a false complaint by a far-right organization based on fake news, whose sole motivation is harassment and persecution of Gomez,” sources from P. Sanchez’s office said on Thursday.
Separate corruption cases have involved the socialist leader’s brother David, former party heavyweights, and his mentor, former prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
On Tuesday, the court banned D. Sanchez from holding public office for nine years, finding him guilty of administrative offenses in creating a tailored job for himself in local government.
The main conservative People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox claim that the series of scandals proves systemic socialist corruption and demand P. Sanchez’s resignation and early elections.
“This is an unprecedented situation in Spanish democracy and unimaginable in any European democracy,” said the PP.
P. Sanchez defended the integrity of his government and wants it to complete its term until the next scheduled general elections in 2027.
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