MADRID — Begoña Gómez, the wife of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, is one step away from sitting in the dock to be tried for crimes of influence peddling and corruption in private businesses, among others.
Judge Juan Carlos Peinado concluded the processing of the procedure this Tuesday before, predictably, sending Sánchez’s wife to trial.
The judge called a preliminary hearing on the accusations, which maintains the charges and requests 13 years in prison for Gómez and six years for co-accused Cristina Álvarez. The defenses, who request the file of the case, as well as the Prosecutor’s Office, before dictating the opening of an oral trial with a popular jury, according to legal sources.
Begoña Gómez did not appear at the hearing without an explanation in this regard having emerged. The advisor paid by Moncloa, Cristina Álvarez, did not appear either, accused of dedicating her workday to the private interests of Begoña Gómez. According to the sources consulted, the advisor is still on vacation in Miamiwhere he traveled after recovering his passport, reports OKdiario.
No trial date
Afterwards, the judge should refer the procedure to the Provincial Court of Madrid, responsible for setting a trial date, which usually takes between four and eight months on average.
Peinado opened the case in April 2024 to investigate crimes such as misappropriation and corruption in business in relation to a public professorship at the Complutense University of Madrid that Sánchez’s wife co-directed, after the so-called Clean Hands union filed a complaint against her based on journalistic investigations.
Peinado decided to prosecute her on June 20 for crimes of influence peddling, corruption in business in the private sector between individuals, misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds.
The popular accusation states that Gómez assumed the co-directorship of a chair at the Complutense University of Madrid (a public institution and one of the most prestigious universities in Spain) “without any evidence of the selection process or the degree that enabled his appointment.”
They also accuse her of a crime of embezzlement for the “destination for private uses” of her advisor’s work, paid for with public funds.
The popular accusation also requests that a hundred witnesses testify at the trial, including President Pedro Sánchez.
In his defense brief for the future trial, known last week, Gómez requests his acquittal and denies that he took advantage of “his marital relationship” with the head of the Executive to obtain a university professorship, as well as that he obtained financial benefit.
