Judge Peinado does not believe Begoña Gómez: he demands that she prove she only traveled for her daughter's graduation

MadridJuan Carlos Peinado doubts Begoña Gómez and moves again. After Pedro Sánchez's wife flew to London to attend her daughter's graduation, which was last Friday, the judge who has been investigating her for two years and has prohibited her from leaving Spain due to risk of flight, gives her five days to prove that she used her passport only for this trip: “To require her to prove that the passport has been used for the specific purpose for which the precautionary measure was lifted,” he points out in a provision to which ARA has had access. And he adds that he wants to verify it to ensure that she has not taken “any action” that could constitute a crime of breaking a precautionary measure.

“The accused's passport does not show any departure or arrival record on the authorized days,” the resolution argues. Sources from Moncloa reply that Begoña Gómez's passport is not stamped because, since January, the “electronic travel authorization” has been in force in the United Kingdom and they allege that the passport stamp is “on its way out” because it is being replaced by “digital systems”. Furthermore, they believe that the judge's request “confirms the persecution and public harassment that” the Spanish president's wife “suffers” for “political reasons”. For their part, the PSOE attributes this move to the magistrate's “obsession”.

Begoña Gómez was exceptionally able to leave Spain because the judge who replaced Peinado – who took a few days off – allowed her to travel to the United Kingdom due to the “nature” of the act and because there is a “good relationship of judicial cooperation” between the two countries, even after Brexit. However, Antonio Viejo prevented her from attending the NATO summit in Ankara because he considered that she was invited by “institutional courtesy” and would not have an “active intervention” and because Turkey is not part of the European Union's “space of freedom, security and justice”, which “facilitates” “police and judicial cooperation”.

In fact, with the doubts he expresses, the judge accepts the reasoning put forward by Hazte Oír, which leads the popular prosecutions, in the brief it filed opposing the two requests. The ultra-Catholic entity denounced that Begoña Gómez did not provide “any documentary accreditation” that the graduation ceremony “effectively took place in London on the indicated dates” and suspected that she did not provide the program, the call, nor the communication from the University of Bristol. “The mere assertion of the party does not, by itself, constitute sufficient accreditation,” it alleged.

The bodyguards and a former Italian prime minister

Three weeks ago, when Begoña Gómez was sent to trial, Judge Peinado withdrew her passport, arguing that her escorts could help her flee: “At a certain point, they can, either on their own initiative or following orders from their hierarchical superiors, collaborate in the action to facilitate this escape”. Days later, he added a new argument: he recalled the case of Bettino Craxi, who seven years after stepping down as Prime Minister of Italy and when he had been sentenced to 27 years in prison for a corruption case, fled to Tunisia.