The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Madrid has filed an appeal with the Provincial Court to dismiss the case against the wife of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, accused of influence peddling, embezzlement, business corruption, and misappropriation. The prosecutor believes there is insufficient evidence for the investigation to proceed, neither against Gómez nor against the other two defendants, La Moncloa advisor Cristina Álvarez and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, and therefore also requests the dismissal of the case for them, according to sources from the public ministry.
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On Tuesday, the prosecutor filed an appeal with the Criminal Chamber of the Provincial Court against the decision of investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado not to close the case, and a second appeal this Wednesday addressed to the judge to also not conclude the pre-trial processing before the holding of a jury trial. It was last Monday when Peinado proposed to try Gómez for four crimes, since, in his opinion, the wife of the Prime Minister took advantage of her position for the creation of a professorship at the Complutense University of Madrid, for sending letters in favor of businessman Barrabés so that he could allegedly obtain a public contract, allegedly irregularly registered the domain of a website she used in the master’s degree that depended on the professorship, and used her advisor in La Moncloa for her private activities.
Judge Peinado has led the investigation hand in hand with the popular accusations, since the Prosecutor’s Office has never seen criminal elements to investigate Begoña Gómez’s activity. From the beginning, the prosecutor appealed the initiation of the case and, from that moment on, has opposed many of the magistrate’s decisions. Nor has he played an active role in the interrogations throughout the two years this investigation has lasted.
Following this step by Peinado, the parties had five days to present their conclusions. The three implicated parties have appealed the indictment, while the popular accusations, led by the ultracatholic association Hazte Oír, requested this Tuesday 24 years in prison for Gómez, 22 for the advisor, and 6 for businessman and consultant Barrabés. What was foreseeable, in this case, was that the Prosecutor’s Office would maintain its position of dismissal, consistent with what it had argued in court these months. The prosecutor requests the Chamber to “uphold” the appeal “by issuing a resolution” to agree to “the free dismissal of the proceedings” as “the facts do not constitute a criminal offense”.
The Provincial Court will, therefore, have to unravel this tangle. Begoña Gómez and the rest of the accused have appealed from the moment the procedure was transformed into a jury trial until the very closure of the proceedings. “It gives the impression that an objective is sought, even at the cost of massacring the truth,” Gómez noted in the last appeal. She maintains that there is no evidence of crimes, since her activity with the Complutense began in 2014, when Pedro Sánchez was not yet Prime Minister. Furthermore, she justifies putting the website in her name because the University suggested it; the use of her advisor for specific master’s matters as personal favors that, at no time, were detrimental to her institutional work and, therefore, did not affect the public treasury; and contextualizes the signing of the letters in favor of Barrabés’ company as a signature as director of the professorship, supporting a business project that was also supported by another thirty entities, including the Madrid City Council.
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