Begoña Gomez, Pedro Sanchez’s wife, is suspected of having used her husband’s position in her professional relationships.
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The Spanish Prime Minister filed a complaint on Tuesday, July 30, for “prevarication” against the judge who summoned him as a witness in a corruption investigation against his wife. Pedro Sanchez accuses Juan Carlos Peinado, among other things, of not having respected his status as head of government by hearing him face to face, instead of letting him testify in writing, as he had requested.
“This complaint (…) is not a frontal attack on the judiciary”is it written in the document filed on his behalf by the State Attorney General and consulted by AFP. “On the contrary, it is an expression of the trust placed in the judiciary, the only one capable of putting an end to an abuse, in this case a judicial abuse attributable to one of the more than 5,000 judges who exercise their functions in Spain.”
During the hearing held on Tuesday at the Moncloa Palace, the official residence of the head of government, Pedro Sanchez asserted his right to remain silent, as Spanish law allows citizens to do so when their spouse is under investigation. The Prime Minister had tried the previous week to assert his right to testify in writing, which is guaranteed for members of the government under Spanish law. The courts rejected his request, assuring that Judge Peinado had summoned him as the husband of Begoña Gomez, who is being investigated for corruption and influence peddling, and not as Prime Minister.
“We cannot separate a person into two and claim that we are going to question them as a spouse, when what determines the object of the investigation (…) is the status of head of government of the husband of the person targeted by the investigation”it is written in the complaint. Begoña Gómez, who directs a master’s degree in management at the Complutense University of Madrid, is suspected of having used her husband’s functions in the context of her professional relations, including a Spanish businessman.
