The Provincial Court of Madrid has in its hands the future of the investigation carried out by judge Juan Carlos Peinado against Begoña Gómez. This Monday, three of its magistrates will decide the appeals presented by the defense of the wife of the president of the government and the prosecution, which are trying to end the trial against Gómez or, failing that, to limit the ” “Prospective” which, consider -they, has been developing Peinado for months.
The times of Justice have forced the appeals, presented at the beginning of July, to remain unanswered until now. Meanwhile, Judge Peinado took the opportunity to go to the Moncloa Palace and ask the president of the government if he was going to testify against his wife, from which the law exempts him. Also in this specific proceeding, Peinado used judicial time: he ordered that Sánchez’s deposition be taken in such a short time as to leave no time to resolve an appeal by the higher court.
In their appeals, Gómez’s prosecution and defense draw up a long list of judge’s decisions that they consider unfounded or directly contrary to the law. The prosecution alludes in its appeal to a “procedural drift” based on resolutions which suffer from a “lack of specificity” and which continually involve “generalities”, giving rise to “a general trial” against the president’s wife .
Gómez’s lawyer speaks, for his part, of a “universal cause”, an investigation into “the life and work” of the president’s wife. He refers to the judge’s warning, in one of his resolutions, that he would investigate “all acts, conduct, behaviors that have been carried out by the person being investigated since his husband was president of the government and which are contained in the initial complaint”. The lawyer warns: “There is no room for an investigation into all the acts, conduct and behavior of anyone in a democratic criminal procedure system. »
Much of the prosecution’s and defense’s arguments against Peinado’s actions focus on an earlier resolution by the same judges who now must respond to the two new appeals. The Provincial Court authorized the investigation into the president’s wife, in response to a quick file request from the prosecution, but the judges limited the facts that Peinado could investigate to contracts awarded by public companies to a company owned by Carlos Barrabés. Regarding the rest of the Clean Hands complaint that gave rise to the case, he said it was either a hoax or there was no evidence of a crime.
The appeals currently being considered by the Provincial Court demonstrate that the judge had little concern for the limits imposed on him by his superior court. The procedures initiated go in the direction of insisting, for example, on an alleged participation of Begoña Gómez in the rescue of the airline Air Europa during the pandemic, something of which the Provincial Court has already excluded any investigation due to the lack of any irregularity.
The rescue of the airline, which aroused broad consensus due to the effects that the pandemic was causing on the economy and the relevance of the company, was ratified this Friday by the Court of Auditors. The monitoring body concluded that the Government has complied with regulations in the treatment of financial support to strategic companies to cope with the effects of Covid-19.
On the other hand, the contracts with Barrabés, which the Madrid court ruled could be subject to scrutiny, fell under the responsibility of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which requested an investigation because they involved EU funds. Peinado’s instruction, affirms the prosecution, “does not adapt to the parameters” imposed by the Provincial Court, “neither understands nor justifies the agreed procedures, nor the decision criteria concerning the analysis of contracts, nor the aim “.
Extension to Complutense
Currently, three people are being investigated in this case: Begoña Gómez, Carlos Barrabés and Joaquín Goyache, rector of the Complutense University. Judge Peinado extended the case to the creation of the master’s degree directed by Begoña Gómez without this being the subject of the investigation. The accusation and summons of Goyache illustrate, for the prosecution, “the scale, generality and lack of specificity” of the Peinado investigation.
During Begoña Gómez’s first appearance, the judge informed the investigator that he had broadened his investigations to a complaint filed by another ultra organization, in this case HazteOir. This extension of the file occurs, affirms the prosecution, despite the fact that the facts reported by HazteOir are the same as those presented by Manos Liminas, which is why it is incompatible with a reason for extension.
Thanks to the appeal of the prosecution, it emerged on July 10 that there is a second report from the Civil Guard which excludes evidence of a crime. The contracts of the Barrabés company “were drawn up normally and according to the principles which govern the criteria for public procurement”.
The deliberation and judgment rendered by judges María del Rosario Esteban, Jesús Gómez-Angulo and Enrique Jesús Bergés, of Section 23 of the Court of Madrid, constitute one of the most important events in the case in the near future, provided that Peinado Don’ I will not be surprised after knowing the result. The three judges will take a position and one of them, who will act as rapporteur, will begin drafting the order, which could be ready during the week.
The other that will arrive is the decision adopted by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid on the complaints for prevarication that the defense of Begoña Gómez and the Prosecutor’s Office, representing the Presidency of Government, filed against Peinado. At the moment it is not known when the Superior Court of Madrid will rule on the matter.
