Unanimously, the five magistrates making up Section 23 of the Provincial Court of Madrid (Audiencia Provincial de Madrid) have agreed to greenlight the investigating judge’s proposal, Juan Carlos Peinado, to put the Prime Minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, on trial before a popular jury. However, the five judges have reduced the four offences proposed by the investigator to just two for which she will stand trial: influence peddling and embezzlement.
According to the judges, there is evidence of “her involvement in alleged offenses of influence peddling committed by a private individual, both in relation to the creation of the university chair and in her mediation in favor of Juan Carlos Barrabés.” Indeed, the Prime Minister’s wife summoned the rector of the Complutense University to Moncloa [the PM’s official residence] and convinced him to organize an extraordinary chair—on Competitive Social Transformation—in just over three months, of which she would be co-director, funded by several companies she had requested to sponsor it.
Once she became the head of the chair, she signed a letter of recommendation—to participate in a public tender—for J.C. Barrabés, a friendly businessman whom her husband had publicly praised. This businessman ultimately won the contract for that public tender.
The court’s reasoning and precedents
The five judges point out that she used “her privileged position as the wife of the Prime Minister” to secure her chair at the Complutense, and the court cites an “important precedent”: the conviction of Iñaki Urdangarín—former husband of Infanta Cristina—where it was proven that he leveraged his family ties with the King to obtain professional benefits.
“That is to say, the mere marital relationship with the highest authority of the Nation’s government, in certain contexts and circumstances such as those analyzed here, can exert an effective moral pressure for the purpose of constituting the crime of influence peddling.”
Precautionary measures lifted
At the same time, the Provincial Court of Madrid has revoked the precautionary measures previously established by the investigating judge, returning Begoña Gómez’s passport and exempting her from having to report to court every 15 days.
Now, all that remains is to set a trial date and select the nine citizens who, guided by a judge, will deliver a verdict. This is an unusual case in which the public prosecution—which reports to the Government—has refused to see any crime from the very beginning and has repeatedly insisted on requesting the dismissal of the case.
