Pedro Sánchez writes to the judge investigating Begoña Gómez: "My statement must be made in writing."

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has sent a letter to the judge investigating his wife in which he expresses his “willingness to collaborate with the Administration of Justice” and to testify before him in writing. Judge Juan Carlos Peinado had informed Sánchez that he would take his statement as a witness next Tuesday at the Palacio de la Moncloa, but Sánchez reminded him that the Law allows him to answer his questions in writing since his appearance “is inseparable” from his position as President of the Government.

“As President of the Government of Spain, I have the duty and responsibility to comply with the law and to preserve the proper meaning of the institution that I represent by election of the Congress of Deputies,” reads the letter, which elDiario.es has had access to. Sánchez cites article 412.2 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which includes such a possibility.

Peinado is investigating Begoña Gómez for influence peddling and corruption in business and last Friday summoned the President of the Government as a witness. In his summons, the judge cited two non-existent articles of the Law and presented what the Prosecutor’s Office has considered “a subterfuge”, separating the statement from his status as President of the Government, so that Sánchez could not exercise his right to testify in writing.

The summons of Pedro Sánchez was agreed by the judge on the same day that the president’s wife invoked her right not to testify as a suspect, on July 19. Peinado had already arranged at that time the statement of another witness for August 26, but considered that the statement of the president of the Government of Spain was so urgent as to set it for July 30, one day before activity in the Spanish courts declines due to the August holidays.

Peinado has summoned Sánchez through a court order – a resolution without reasoning – and this requires that any appeal be presented first before him, and if he rejects it, then go to the higher court, which makes it impossible for the appeals presented against the summons on Tuesday by Gómez’s defense and the Prosecutor’s Office to be resolved in time by the Provincial Court, in the foreseeable case that the judge rejects them.

Legal sources explain that witnesses who have the right not to testify before the judge must appear at the court on duty and announce that they will not attend the statement. Pedro Sánchez’s letter has been sent to the Peinado Court through the legal services of Moncloa.