Judge Juan Carlos Peinado has summoned Begoña Gómez, wife of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, for June 9 for a preliminary hearing to decide whether to send her to trial.
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In an order, accessed by La Vanguardia, the magistrate warns Gómez and the other two accused, her advisor Cristina Álvarez and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, that they must attend the hearing in person or else measures could be taken against them.
Peinado considers that they face serious crimes – influence peddling, corruption in business, embezzlement, and misappropriation of public funds – “which could provoke some conduct by one, some, or all three accused, aimed at evading the action of Justice.” And given this fear, and the high penalty they face, he orders that they be present at the hearing where it will be decided whether to take the next step and place them at the disposal of the jury court for trial.
If they do not appear, the resolution states, “some precautionary personal measure could be adopted to prevent or minimize the risk of attempting to evade the action of justice by the accused.”
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Peinado calls this preliminary hearing once the indictment order has been agreed upon, the parties have submitted their accusations or defense writings, and only the order to open the oral trial remains to be agreed. In cases going to a popular jury, the law establishes the convening of this hearing.
The investigator has made this decision once the last pending report from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard arrived, which assesses that there are no irregular bank movements but detects dysfunctions in the contracting of two companies to develop the software for his chair, taught at the Complutense University of Madrid.
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