The Madrid Court halts Peinado's case and rejects two jury trials against Begoña Gómez.
He believes that the investigating judge did not justify sufficiently to create a separate piece on the hiring of the Moncloa assistant.
MadridThe Madrid Court puts Judge Juan Carlos Peinado at his feet, who wanted to send Begoña Gómez to two jury trialsThe court ruled this Thursday that the separation of the case against the wife of the Spanish Prime Minister into two parts is "premature and unfounded" and reversed it. Following this setback, there is currently only one case against Gómez, and the investigating judge must decide whether to further justify the separation of the part for embezzlement related to the hiring of Gómez's assistant at the Moncloa Palace, Cristina Álvarez, or whether to incorporate it into the main part. The ruling by which the embezzlement claim was submitted to the jury, therefore, also automatically falls.
"After a year and a half of investigation, with a huge amount of information accumulated, but with proceedings still to be carried out and reports and documentation to be received, it is not admissible to adopt a decision to modify the procedure without verifying a correct factual delimitation and description of the incriminating evidence that respects what allows us to know, so that we can know if they are related crimes, if there is minimum consistency to advance the procedure, if they are separable and if this will facilitate the correct processing of the case," write the magistrates of section 23 of the Madrid Court.
On March 10, Peinado issued an order in which he divided the case against Begoña Gómez and opened a separate part for the crime of embezzlement. A few months later, on June 23, it dismissed the parties' appeals challenging that ruling, until now, when the Madrid Court of Appeals has ruled. This court reverses the March 10 ruling and requires the judge to "adopt the appropriate decisions to accommodate the remaining actions taken after the current ruling." That is, it must annul the ruling that sent the case to a jury and decide whether to insist on separating the case or keep it together. However, it does not question the investigation into embezzlement related to Álvarez's hiring at the Moncloa Palace.
How does this affect the main case?
Sources in the Madrid justice system consulted by ARA indicate that, for the time being, the fact that the main case will go to a jury is not in danger. If Peinado decides to incorporate the embezzlement component into the original proceedings for four other crimes, the judge could send the case to a jury for all five. Embezzlement and influence peddling are crimes that the law provides for trial by jury and would be included in the other three. However, there is disagreement among experts on this issue. Lawyers consulted by ARA emphasize that when a case involves more than one crime, the proceedings should move toward a professional trial.
