The judge suspends Begoña Gómez’s statement until July 19

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has suspended the statement of Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, as a defendant in business corruption and influence peddling. The magistrate has set a new date for her statement for July 19. The reason for the postponement is that the complaint that the ultra-Catholic association HazteOir has also filed against her was not notified, legal sources report.

Peinado summoned Begoña Gómez on June 4 despite the fact that he still had ten witnesses to testify and a report from the Civil Guard that concluded that there was no evidence of a crime. The judge had opened the case based on a complaint from Manos Limpias based on press clippings and the summons of Pedro Sánchez’s wife occurred in the last week of the electoral campaign for the European elections.

Once the case was opened, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that it be dismissed in an appeal that it submitted to the Madrid Court, the court above the judge. In its response, the judges of the Provincial Court found sufficient evidence to investigate the awarding of three contracts to a joint venture formed by a company belonging to Juan Carlos Barrabés.

The businessman had shared a chair with Gómez at the Complutense University. He then obtained public contracts during the pandemic that, on two occasions, included a standard letter of recommendation signed by the wife of the President of the Government as director of a master’s degree. Innova, Barrabés’ company, also obtained contracts from, for example, the Madrid City Council with a recommendation signed by its manager, who unlike Gómez is not under investigation. These contracts, the subject of the Manos Limpias complaint, were materialised with European funds, so the judge has had to accept the request of the European Prosecutor’s Office to take charge of the investigation.

The rest of the Manos Limpias complaint referred to the information about Gómez’s alleged influence in the rescue of Air Europa, but the Madrid Court had already established that these were “conjectures”. In this context, Gómez’s defence began to ask the judge why he was prolonging the investigation.

The judge issued an order last Monday in response to the request for information from the person under investigation and in it he warned that he was going to investigate “all the acts, conduct and behavior that have been carried out by the person under investigation since her husband became President of the Government of Spain and which are contained in the initial complaint.” [de Manos Limpias]”, with the exception of those already being investigated by the European Prosecutor’s Office.

The complaint by the far-right pseudo-union was based on seven reports from various media outlets and a hoax from The Objective. Some of these reports referred to the contracts of Barrabés’ company, although the main part of them referred to the letters signed by Gómez.

The contracts that Peinado is now supposedly investigating, and for which he has requested reports from the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE), are six files of contracts with Innova, Barrabés’ company. The judge opened a case for corruption in business and influence peddling, but none of the proposals for these contracts included the incorporation of a letter signed by Gómez, unlike those being investigated by the European Prosecutor’s Office.

On the other hand, and despite the fact that the Provincial Court dismissed the investigation into the rescue of Air Europa, Peinado has also requested information from the Sociedad Estatatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) on the file on the aid granted to the airline of the Globalia group. According to legal sources, the judge still does not have these files in his possession, which has not prevented him from continuing with the questioning of Begoña Gómez.