An exemplary sentence or a scandal?
BarcelonaThe Supreme Court has issued a ruling against the former minister and former organization secretary of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, and his advisor Koldo García, which aims to be exemplary for public officials, with sentences of 24 years and three months for the former and 19 years and 8 months for the latter, but it is suspiciously lenient with the businessman who was the main beneficiary of the scheme, Víctor de Aldama, who has only received 4 and a half years. A sentence that the Court suspends in exchange for community service, arguing that thanks to his collaboration, the so-called mask case has been fully uncovered. In other words, some have sentences comparable to those who have committed murder and will have to spend a minimum of 15 years behind bars, while others, in this case the corrupting businessman, will not have to set foot in prison.
One can agree with the authors of the ruling, among whom are three magistrates from the 'Procés' trial – including Manuel Marchena – that corruption in the public sphere, especially from such a high-ranking position as a minister, should carry a heavier penalty because it "erodes citizens' trust in the political system," but a minimum proportionality must undoubtedly be preserved. There is no doubt that Ábalos and García, with Aldama's complicity, orchestrated a scheme to benefit from the former's position and have an extra income for personal expenses of 10,000 euros per month (provided by the businessman in exchange for influencing in favor of his companies or others represented by him), but the ruling also acknowledges that the accusation made during the trial, stating that he delivered two million euros to the former minister, could not be proven.
On the other hand, what has been proven is that Aldama collected 3.7 million in illegal commissions, of which he paid 430,000 euros to Ábalos and Koldo García. Well, the ruling punishes him with a fine of only 143,000 euros, so that at the end of the entire process, this corrupt businessman will not only not have gone to prison but will also have kept 3.1 million. The line between encouraging collaboration with justice and sending the message that corruption can get you off for free is very thin, so much so that some experts see something else in it: a call for the emergence of other Aldamas in cases like Zapatero's or Leire Díaz's.
In any case, all this does not prevent the stain for Pedro Sánchez and the supposedly regenerative project with which he arrived at Moncloa in 2018 after the Gürtel sentence from being very large, especially because what has been judged in the Supreme Court is only a small part of the whole case and everything related to Santos Cerdán remains to be clarified. But it is also true that the image of justice is not emerging well from the whole affair. In fact, today the CGPJ has opened a file on Judge Peinado for stating that Begoña Gómez's bodyguards could help her to flee. An assertion that not even the PP has dared to defend.