Spanish conservative group Hazte Oír on Monday filed a popular prosecution request against Begoña Gómez, wife of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, seeking a 24 year-prisons sentence in the ongoing corruption trial process against her.
Last week, Spanish Judge Juan Carlos Peinado charged Gómez with embezzlement, influence peddling, business corruption, and misappropriation. Peinado issued the ruling at a time when she was accompanying Sánchez during his official visit to China and comes after a two years-long probe into Gómez’s activities at the Complutense University of Madrid. In addition to Gómez, Judge Peinado also agreed to prosecute Gómez’s advisor Cristina Álvarez and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés.
The Spanish Constitution allows citizens or organizations not directly harmed by a crime to participate in criminal proceedings to defend public interest. On Monday, Hazte Oír made use of the constitutional rights to request a 24 year prison sentence for Gómez for the four charges, as well as the imposition of a travel ban and the confiscation of Gómez passport due to her being at an “obvious risk of flight.”
Europapress reports that it obtained a copy of the request filed by Hazte Oír and explained that the organization filed it in representation of the anti-mass migration VOX party, the Clean Hands anti-corruption association, and other local organizations.
In the document, Hazte Oír accused Gómez of “taking advantage of her relationship with Prime Minister Sánchez” to offer executives of companies the opportunity to speak with her husband. The group further accused Gómez of offering “her public participation to obtain, in exchange, both financial compensation and the provision of services and work” for her “personal gain” and “at no cost to her.”
“Such conduct led to the acquisition of sponsorships, services, technical support, relational capital, and competitive positioning to develop a software program that was unique in the market and offered at a highly competitive price, as she obtained it at no cost. And this was because her intention, from the very beginning, was to divert ownership of the final product to her own assets,” Hazte Oír‘s document reportedly read.
Hazte Oír is also requesting that Prime Minister Sánchez and Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños are called to testify — a request that presented by the organization on grounds that they believe that their testimony is “crucial” to clarifying the appointment of Gómez’s advisor Cristina Álvarez and “the scope of the position,” given that he headed the General Secretariat of the Presidency.
Unnamed sources from the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office told El Español that Hazte Oír‘s document is “particularly significant” because popular prosecutors are the only ones who can bring criminal charges per Spanish laws, and since Spanish prosecutors have “never found any criminal wrongdoing in Gómez’s professional activities and will therefore seek an acquittal.”
Gómez, through her lawyer Antonio Camacho, has publicly denied any wrongdoing and has instead criticized Judge Peinado last week for carrying out what she claims is an “abnormally accelerated” process that “violates” her right to defense.