A court in Madrid wants to further investigate the corruption allegations against the wife of Spain’s head of government. Sánchez had threatened to resign after the complaint against his wife was filed in April.
In the case of corruption allegations against Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a Madrid court has decided to continue the investigation. There are “indications of a suspected crime” that go beyond mere suspicion and are sufficient to continue the investigation, according to court documents obtained by the AFP news agency. The court thus rejected an objection by the public prosecutor’s office against the initiation of an investigation. The investigation is “justified,” the court said.
At the end of April, the public prosecutor’s office requested that the investigation be closed. The police also came to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of a crime. The court has now contradicted these assessments.
Suspicion of influence and corruption
This confirmed a decision by a Madrid judge who had decided in mid-April to open an investigation against Gómez on suspicion of influence peddling and corruption in the economy. After the corruption charges against his wife became known, Sánchez denied the allegations, complained about a political mudslinging match and threatened to resign from the office he has held since mid-2018.
The 52-year-old socialist politician complained that he was being harassed by the right and the extreme right using all means possible. However, after a five-day period of reflection, Sánchez decided to remain in office.
Charges filed against Gómez after Media reports
The complaint against Gómez was filed in April by the organization “Manos Limpias” (Clean Hands), which is close to right-wing circles. Gómez, who does not hold public office, is said to have exploited her position as the wife of the head of government to do business. Specifically, investigators are looking into Gómez’s private connections to companies in the tourism and aviation sectors that received public money during the Corona crisis, as the news site El Confidencial reported. According to the reports, Gómez is said to have met a company boss privately while her husband’s government was negotiating aid funds with the company around the same time.
“Manos Limpias” had admitted that their complaint against Gómez was based on media reports. In addition to the public prosecutor’s office, the police unit responsible for corruption crimes (UCO) had also found no evidence of illegal actions by Gómez in its own investigation.
Spain’s Justice Minister Félix Bolaños therefore again called for the investigation to be closed. The Spanish police report refutes “all the false accusations, one after the other,” said Bolaños. “The sooner the case is closed, the better.”