The progressive judge investigating the PSOE

BarcelonaThis week's political earthquake in Ferraz stems from a police report from the UCO (Central Court of Justice) that was under seal and was part of a separate part of the Ábalos case in the Supreme Court (SC). From the courts, the person handling that case is Judge Leopoldo Puente. This is also what he offered Santos Cerdán on Thursday to voluntarily testify before the SC on June 25th due to the "consistent evidence" pointing to him.

Puente is a member of the Supreme Court's criminal division. He was appointed a magistrate in this division in 2020 with broad support from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ): 19 of the 21 members voted in favor, and only two members (Álvaro Cuesta and Concepción Sáez) voted blank. At the time, the CGPJ was chaired by the conservative Carlos Lesmes, and the body reached an agreement between progressives and conservatives to make a total of six SC appointments, including Puente's.

To get to this point, Puente took the competitive examinations for both a judge and a prosecutor in 1990. However, he has never practiced in the latter field, since as soon as he passed, he requested a voluntary leave of absence and focused on working as a judge in the Galician municipality of Cambados. From there, he rose through the ranks in the courts of Huelva and Segovia until reaching the appeals section of the civil and criminal division of the High Court of Justice of Madrid, where he practiced for the two years prior to his arrival at the Supreme Court.

Legal sources explain to ARA that at the time he was appointed to the Supreme Court, he was close to progressive members Clara Martínez de Careaga and Rafael Mozo. He was also a member of the Judges for Democracy association, affiliated with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). Thus, the same sources make it clear that he is not exactly a judge who could be part of the "hunt" to which Sánchez claims he is subjected.