A judge in Spain has ruled that the wife of socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez must stand trial on corruption charges and has banned her from leaving the country.
Begoña Gómez had previously been charged after a two-year investigation with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds.
Gómez, 55, denies any wrongdoing in the case, which was triggered by a complaint from the group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links.
The judge in the case, Juan Carlos Peinado, ordered Gómez to surrender her passport, barred her from leaving Spain and required her to report to court twice a month, according to a court order released on Saturday. She will face trial by jury on an unspecified date.
Sánchez had repeatedly dismissed the case against his wife as a baseless and politically motivated smear. The prime minister, an outspoken leftist leader in Europe, has accused his political and media opponents of pursuing his family and has also openly questioned the impartiality of some members of the judiciary.
Government sources said the judge’s latest decisions served only to confirm “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 reacted similarly, posting on X: “(Begoña) has been subjected to judicial and political persecution for two years. Today’s development is another step in that process.”
Peinado’s ruling also infuriated police unions, who took exception to his suggestion that he had decided to bar Gómez from leaving Spain because he feared that some of the police officers tasked with protecting in her role as the wife of the prime minister could actually 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 the action or actions carried out to [help Gómez flee],” he wrote.
The JUPOL police union described Peinado’s remarks as “utterly outrageous” and called on him to retract them, while the United Police Union called them “profoundly worrying” and wrote to Spain’s interior minister urging him to defend officers’ integrity.
The General Council of the Judiciary, which oversees Spain’s judges and the work, was also reported to have convened an urgent meeting on Monday to decide whether to open disciplinary action against Peinado over his assertions.
The Gómez case is one of a series of corruption investigations that have plagued Sánchez, who came to power in 2018 by promising to end the graft that had mired the ruling conservative People’s party (PP).
Now, several investigations into Sánchez’s family and former top political allies threaten to topple the government.
Sánchez has not been named in any of the cases but his brother, David, is accused of influence peddling while the former transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, is accused of taking kickbacks on public contracts. Both deny the accusations.
One of the most potentially damaging cases is against former socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – a titan of the Spanish left – who was placed under investigation last month for alleged influence peddling.
Zapatero, who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2011, defended his innocence during hearings this week.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
