Less than two minutes. That’s how long the statement by Pedro Sánchez before judge Juan Carlos Peinado last July at the Moncloa Palace. A very brief appearance, whose audio has now transcendedafter the magistrate sent it to the parties, in which the president of the government took advantage of his right not to testify so as not to harm his wife and denied any relationship with the other two investigated in the case.
A record that contains only six questions from the judge: his name, whether he knows each of the three people investigated and, on two occasions, whether he has availed himself of the exemption from testifying against his wife. Thus, the audio of the testimony begins with the head of the Executive identifying himself by his first and last name, after which Judge Peinado explains that the diligence that will be carried out consists of collecting a statement. “If you wish to declare”apostille.
Peinado adds that in the procedure in question, three people have the status of persons under investigation. “I will ask you if with any of them do you have some kind of relationship“, keep it up.
First, he asks about his wife: “The first of them is called Doña Begoña Gómez Fernández. Do you have any kind of relationship or kinship, friendship, enmity with this person?” the judge asks, to which Sánchez simply replies: “This is my wife”. Immediately afterwards, Peinado reiterates the question regarding the other two interviewees, the businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés and the rector of the Complutense University, Joaquin GoyacheThe President answers negatively in both cases.
