The CGPJ will study whether to open disciplinary proceedings against Peinado for questioning the police's work

BarcelonaThe permanent commission of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) will study whether to open disciplinary proceedings against Judge Juan Carlos Peinado for his ruling on Begoña Gómez, in which he withdrew her passport with the argument that her escorts could help her in an eventual escape. The body met this Sunday extraordinarily and remotely, but decided to postpone the debate until Monday.

The meeting began at 10 a.m., according to legal sources confirmed to Efe, and comes after the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, yesterday conveyed his "most energetic complaint" to the CGPJ and requested the adoption of "the measures that may be appropriate in the use of its powers".

The president of the CGPJ, Isabel Perelló, proposed this Sunday to address whether the argument used by Peinado warrants the opening of disciplinary proceedings against the judge. The final decision will be made in a new meeting this Monday at 9 a.m. The objective, according to the same sources, is to enable a debate on this matter.

In fact, Peinado's argument not only angered Marlaska and Moncloa —who consider that her order confirms the judge's "persecution, obsession, and disproportion" against Begoña Gómez—, but also irritated the police unions.

The majority union of the National Police, Jupol, demanded a "rectification" from the judge. "It is an authentic barbarity to suggest that members of the National Police and, in particular, agents assigned to the security of the government's presidency could collaborate in a hypothetical escape or in any action aimed at removing a person from the action of justice, whoever says it," they criticized this Saturday in a statement. The SUP union also joined in, describing Peinado's statement as "especially worrying": "National police officers do not act outside the law".

Peinado's argument

How is the passport withdrawal for Gómez justified? Although the Spanish president's wife is always accompanied by escorts – this is the argument her defense used to reject the precautionary measures requested by Hazte Oír – the judge considers that these agents could help Gómez flee: "These agents, at a given moment, may, either on their own initiative or following orders from their hierarchical superiors, collaborate in the action or actions to facilitate this escape, which would make it impossible for the accused to be at the disposal of justice".

The judge adds, moreover, that the "condition" of being the Spanish president of Pedro Sánchez is something "ephemeral and, therefore, transient", which means that the escorts Begoña Gómez now has could "disappear". "This would further facilitate this hypothetical escape".

Peinado resolved this Saturday the request for precautionary measures made by the popular prosecutions in the preliminary hearing for the opening of oral proceedings that took place on Monday. In addition to the withdrawal of the passport, he also prohibits her from leaving the State and obliges her to report to the court every fifteen days. These are the measures requested by Hazte Oír, the ultra entity that groups the popular prosecutions, because it considered there was a flight risk. However, it had not requested preventive detention.

Peinado also accepted the same precautionary measures for Begoña Gómez's advisor, Cristina Álvarez. With this order, the magistrate also ordered the opening of oral proceedings for Gómez, Álvarez, and the businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, to whom he did not impose any precautionary measures.