Pedro Sánchez’s wife
Spanish Prime Minister’s wife charged with corruption
Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been charged with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation by a judge in Madrid.
Gómez, 55, has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the socialist prime minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid’s Complutense University, and of using public resources and personal connections to further her private interests.
The judge, Juan Carlos Peinado, has also charged Gómez’s personal assistant, Cristina Álvarez, and a businessman, Juan Carlos Barrabés, in connection with the case.
All the accused have denied wrongdoing.
The investigation into Gómez was triggered by a complaint from Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a history of using the courts to pursue those it deems a threat to Spain’s democratic interests.
Sánchez had repeatedly dismissed the case against his wife as a baseless and politically motivated smear. The prime minister has accused his political and media opponents of pursuing his family and has also openly questioned the impartiality of some members of the judiciary.
In his 39-page ruling, Peinado suggested that “certain public decisions favourable to the [university chair], which could have been obtained through a unique exploitation of her relational position, had been taken since Gómez’s husband became secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party and, above all, since he became prime minister”. Lire la suite »