Spanish
Madrid.- A judge charged this Monday Begoña Gómez, wife of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, for an alleged embezzlement in the hiring of her advisor, also under investigation for the same matter, and summoned both to testify in September.
Gómez was already being investigated by the same magistrate, Juan Carlos Peinado, for the alleged crimes of influence peddling, corruption in business, misappropriation of brand, and intrusion in her work as co-director of two master's degrees and an extraordinary chair at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).You may be interested in: Pedro Sánchez decides to continue at the head of the Government
Now the judge calls the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister and her advisor, Cristina Álvarez, to testify. She already did so as a witness last December to give explanations about several journalistic reports that claimed she dedicated part of her time to helping Gómez in his work at the Complutense and other activities with companies with which she collaborated. The investigation will have to focus on whether Álvarez "exceeded his authority in the performance of the public functions entrusted to him to favor the criminal plan of the investigated in the crime of influence peddling, by diverting public funds improperly placed at the service of particular or strictly private interests", according to a ruling of the Provincial Court of Madrid. Álvarez was hired in 2018, when the current Spanish Minister of Justice, Felix Bolaños, was Secretary General of the Presidency, the body responsible for hiring Gómez's advisor. In June, magistrate Peinado requested the indictment of Bolaños for embezzlement and perjury after he had testified in April, but the Supreme Court refused to investigate the minister.
