The popular prosecution in the Begoña Gómez case, led by the ultracatholic association Hazte Oír, presented this Monday the brief with the request for sentences for a hypothetical jury trial against the wife of the President of the Government. The accusations request 24 years in prison for Pedro Sánchez’s wife, to whom they attribute the same four crimes as the investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado: influence peddling, embezzlement, business corruption, and misappropriation. In addition, they demand 22 years in prison for Gómez’s advisor at La Moncloa, Cristina Álvarez, and six for the third accused, businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés.
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Hazte Oír’s representation brings together a mosaic of diverse accusations ranging from political parties (Vox and Iustitia Europa) to the pseudo-union Manos Limpias, Movimiento de Regeneración Política de España, and a former PP mayor in a private capacity. Although they do not agree on the crimes and the people who should stand trial (for example, Manos Limpias requests ten years for Begoña Gómez and does not believe the advisor should be charged), all must proceed under the direction of Hazte Oír because the magistrate has so decided. In the brief, to which EL PAÍS has had access, they also request as precautionary measures the imposition of a bail that they do not quantify, the prohibition of leaving national territory without judicial authorization, the withdrawal of a passport, and the obligation to appear every 15 days in court.
The prosecution embraces Judge Peinado’s narrative and considers that Begoña Gómez took advantage of Pedro Sánchez’s arrival to the presidency to develop her professional career with the creation of an extraordinary professorship at the Complutense University of Madrid. “All this occurred despite her not being a university graduate and without an open and competitive academic selection process appearing in the records,” the lawyer reflects.
It should be remembered that Begoña Gómez’s defense and the university staff who have appeared in court have explained that there was no irregularity in the process of creating the professorship and argue that the wife of the President of the Government did not profit because the professorship was free. The prosecution points to the existence of a meeting a few months before the creation of said professorship, in July 2020, at La Moncloa with the rector, Joaquín Goyache, whom they ask to summon as a witness in the trial.
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They add the crime of embezzlement for the use of Gómez’s assistant for this university activity. They point out that the wife of the President of the Government was responsible for said diversion of public money because she was the one who decided her hiring because they were friends beforehand. “Based on such friendship, Begoña Gómez voluntarily, freely, and consciously influenced the officials and authorities who had to decide on the hiring,” the brief states without clarifying which officials specifically. This assistant position was a position of trust and, therefore, of free appointment.
For Hazte Oír, Cristina Álvarez’s active involvement in activities related to Gómez’s professorship and master’s degree at the Complutense is key.
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