The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office sees evidence to indict the PSOE in the Leire case, but believes it is still "premature"

MadridThe Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office believes there are grounds to charge the PSOE within the framework of the Leire case at the National Court, but considers it still "premature" to take this step. It is the public prosecutor's response to the request made by the PP –which leads the popular accusations– two days ago, the day after the call for the elections on November 29. The prosecutor argues that first, pending proceedings must be carried out, such as, for example, the statement as an investigated party of Santos Cerdán, the former number three of the PSOE. The popular party wanted Pedro Sánchez's party to be investigated for the crimes of illegal financing, bribery, influence peddling, money laundering, and embezzlement.

This move coincides with the statement at the National Court by Beatriz Biedma, the judge who investigated and sent Pedro Sánchez's brother to trial. She did so as an injured party after reporting that she was “affected” by an alleged campaign to “discredit her publicly and professionally.” The alleged role that the Los Rochos drug trafficking clan had in those maneuvers is under suspicion. Legal sources tell ARA that, before the judge, she acknowledged that she does not know Leire Díez and does not know if she is behind these maneuvers. There are two main points of interest.

Firstly, a lawyer told her that Luis Sáenz de Tejada –a former judge who was expelled from the career after a conviction for gender-based violence and who is an alleged collaborator of what are dubbed the sewers of the PSOE, although he is not formally under investigation– had contacted Cinthia Rocho, who is the leader of the Los Rochos clan. 24 hours ago, a report by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard contained the testimony, precisely, of Cinthia Rocho. She recounted a phone call with Luis Sáenz de Tejada in which he had told her that Beatriz Biedma was a “fucking pain in the ass” and that “she had to be eliminated.” “The donkey learns with beatings,” he allegedly added. And she understood that “they wanted to cause her physical harm.”

Secondly, Beatriz Biedma explained that another lawyer told her that he had seen videos of her and her daughters. At the same time, from her daughters' school, they asked her about her “secretary” and her “brother,” although she has neither a secretary nor a brother. She has a sister, who is the one who accompanied her to Madrid. She has no protection and was alarmed, but she did not know who was behind it and has not been able to provide evidence. That said, she stated that she did not feel “threatened” and that she did not change any resolution.

In the filing to appear in court, the judge argued that she had been the victim of a “last and desperate strategy” to remove her from the investigation into David Sánchez with “very serious acts that could have endangered her own physical integrity.” She pointed to the crimes of obstruction of justice, crimes against moral integrity, threats and coercion, discovery and disclosure of secrets, false accusation or reporting, and criminal organization. However, the Public Prosecutor's Office limited it solely to the crime of slander because it considered that she was “directly and personally affected” by the facts investigated in “intimate relation” to the case regarding Pedro Sánchez's brother.

Sánchez's brother appeals his conviction

In parallel, Pedro Sánchez's brother has filed an appeal with the High Court of Justice of Extremadura against the ruling that sentenced him to nine years of disqualification. David Sánchez argues that he was investigated because of his "family background" and his "brother's political status." The document, to which ARA has had access, laments that with "the bait of a non-existent absenteeism" on his part, "the floodgates were opened" to a "prospective investigation." He believes that the popular accusations, which included the PP, Vox, Manos Limpias, Hazte Oír, and Iustitia Europa, had "ethereal goals that artificially wrap up other interests."