Peinado sends the entire case against Begoña Gómez to a jury.

MadridJudge Juan Carlos Peinado wants to send the entire remainder of the Begoña Gómez case to a jury. The investigating judge issued a new order this Thursday summoning the wife of the Spanish president, businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, and Moncloa aide Cristina Álvarez to appear in court next Monday at 5:30 p.m., as he did with the first part that was referred to the jury. However, those involved, They sent their lawyers. "Those under investigation should be duly summoned and made aware that they must appear with their lawyer," Peinado writes, after last Saturday's standoff.

What Peinado initially separated from the rest of the case was Álvarez's hiring at the Moncloa Palace to carry out private tasks for Gómez. However, he now wants to send the entire case to a jury for four crimes: misappropriation, influence peddling, workplace intrusion, and corruption in private business. Peinado's decision is surprising because some of these crimes are not within the jurisdiction of a jury. In fact, the law establishes that only influence peddling (and embezzlement for which he had already sent the garment separated through this procedure) are. Furthermore, experts consulted by ARA point out that when two or more crimes are involved, the proceedings continue to a professional court due to the complexity of the case.

Why does the judge want to put Gomez in the dock?

The main cause hinges on several issues. One of them is linked to the chair that Gómez led with Barrabés at the Complutense University of Madrid and the use of a software that some companies would have financed. It is suspected that the wife of the head of the State's executive branch may have appropriated this tool, which was originally intended for the university. But Gómez's involvement in the awarding of public contracts for Red.es to Barrabés' companies, for whom the wife of the Spanish president signed letters of recommendation in his favor, is also being investigated.

Specifically, a report by state auditors for the European Public Prosecutor's Office—which is investigating two of the contracts under suspicion—released this Monday emphasized that in those awards, the contracting committee took these letters—not specifically those from Begoña Gómez—into account when subjectively evaluating the bids. The report considered that there had been an "unfair" and "illegal" increase in the score for the Temporary Business Union (UTE) led by Barrabés.