The Kitchen case has put the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior under Jorge Fernández Díaz on the accused's bench, accused of spying on Luis Bárcenas and trying to steal information that could compromise the PP. Throughout the investigation, Judge Manuel García-Castellón drew a fine but robust line to confine the suspected facts to the ministry and leave the party aside. However, during the investigation, there were other relevant figures who were investigated or whom the Prosecutor's Office requested to indict. Mariano Rajoy is not on the list: in September 2021, the Prosecutor's Office pointed to a "possible responsibility" of the former Spanish Prime Minister, but no one ever formally requested that he be investigated. As a witness, and despite the existence of an audio from María Dolores de Cospedal that directly implicates him in the operation, he denied having destroyed evidence of the PP's 'caja B'. Who are the ten saved?

The Zapatero family's jewelry is today the main focus of tension in Spanish politics. The former president of the government has just been charged in a separate piece of the one that Judge of the National Court José Luis Calama was already investigating. The immediate consequence, beyond being summoned to testify again, is that as soon as legal action has been initiated regarding his jewelry, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero can no longer regularize them. Article 305.4 of the Penal Code establishes that he could have done so before the investigating judge formally communicated the opening of proceedings.

Zapatero's jewels have been making headlines for days and, since this Friday, they are the subject of a new separate piece in the Plus Ultra case at the National Court. Judge José Luis Calama has agreed to also investigate the former Spanish president for the possession of these valuable objects because he considers that there are indications of alleged tax and smuggling offenses.there are indications of alleged tax and smuggling offenses. The basis for his decision is the preliminary appraisal of the jewels – located in the office of the former PSOE leader – which have been valued at 1,323,915 euros. The appraisal report, to which ARA has had access, analyzes the estimated market price (including taxes) of up to 79 pieces of jewelry, among which necklaces worth more than 220,000 euros and earrings worth 80,000 euros stand out.

José Manuel Villarejo is a name that allows a bridge to be established between the Kitchen case – the alleged operation to steal compromising information about the PP's slush fund from Luis Bárcenas – and the Leire Díez case – the alleged maneuvers to "obstruct" judicial proceedings that implicate Pedro Sánchez. The retired commissioner continued testifying this morning at the trial that has been ongoing for two months about the espionage against the former PP treasurer, but before accessing the National Court, he stopped for ten minutes with journalists. Without clarifying whether he met with the so-called "plumber" of the PSOE, he presented himself as a victim: "Throughout all these years, the alleged sewers have gone against me and have tried to destroy me," he denounced. And he recalled that the socialists, who are popular accusers in the Kitchen case, are asking for more prison years than the Prosecutor's Office: "Do I reach an agreement with the PSOE and the PSOE becomes a person to give me more years in prison? Don't they realize it's stupid?" he asked ironically.

José Manuel Villarejo was the protagonist of the day in the trial of the Kitchen case. The retired commissioner of the Spanish police, who has been parading through the courts for years and is part of the patriotic police leadership, spent three uninterrupted hours answering the prosecutor's questions in a convoluted statement in which he dedicated himself to shooting right and left and put several names on the table. One of the notable ones was that of Mariano Rajoy, whom he accused of benefiting from the illegal espionage of Luis Bárcenas: "He took advantage of this official and correct operation that was to locate assets abroad in case there was anything that affected him. All those who are charged were deceived by the genius of Mr. Rajoy, who resolves everything with Cardhu [a whisky]," he said. "Possibly, he wanted to jump on the bandwagon, take advantage of the matter and 'If there's anything from my [business], I want it too,'" he added later. Previously, he assured that the former president of the Spanish government asked him "through third parties" to inform him "directly" of his activity because he "did not trust" what Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz would tell him.

Jorge Fernández Díaz and Francisco Martínez have buried the hatchet and, denial after denial, have executed a non-aggression pact with all the trimmings. After two months of trial and more than 150 witnesses, the two main defendants in the Kitchen case have entered the scene: they have followed the planned script and have denied any involvement in the espionage against Luis Bárcenas. The Prosecutor's Office is requesting 15 years in prisonfor the former Minister of the Interior and the former Secretary of State for Security. Their statements have shown a pacification that was non-existent during the investigation, many points of connection, and a clear contradiction. The common denominator has been to distance themselves from the state's underbelly. Jorge Fernández Díaz stated that he became aware of the Kitchen operation, "like any ordinary person," in late 2015, when "it began to appear" in the media: "Until then, I had not heard of it from above, or below, or from the right, or from the left. No one had spoken to me about it," he assured. Francisco Martínez also denied ordering a operation against the former PP treasurer: "I never ordered investigations into anything," he said.

One year and one day after Leire Díez, known as the PSOE's plumber, burst into the news, her name has once again been strongly heard. In the last 366 days, Santos Cerdán has resigned as number 3 of the PSOE, has gone to prison and has been released, and Díez has gone from anonymity to the political forefront. And now the National Court has definitively connected their paths. Judge Santiago Pedraz believes that, along with other people, they concocted a network with the aim of "systematically and continuously destabilizing and hindering" any judicial case that could splash Pedro Sánchez. Santos Cerdán, who was the "leader" and made the "strategic" decisions, commissioned Leire Díez in April 2024 to "coordinate and execute" all actions. The plan involved offering "remunerations or favors" to Civil Guard officers, investigators, or prosecutors "in exchange for information or acts contrary to the exercise of their duties." The focus was particularly on judges who were beginning to investigate Pedro Sánchez's wife and brother.

The PSOE headquarters on Ferraz street in Madrid woke up to the visit of agents from the Operational Action Unit of the Civil Guard. They carried a judicial order for them to be provided with a whole series of information linked to a case under secrecy that the National Court has been investigating for months. In the event that the socialists had refused to provide the documentation to the police, they even had a signed authorization to search the party headquarters. What was Judge Santiago Pedraz looking for there?

One of the two reports from UDEF –the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit of the National Police– that the judge has used to impute José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero complains about the obstacles that SEPI –the State's investment arm and the body that greenlit the Plus Ultra bailout– placed during the investigation. "The documentation sent was incomplete and had deficiencies that prevented its analysis," concludes the document, to which ARA has had access. The judge had to make a second request for information because the first batch of documentation was insufficient: "Some of the folders are empty of content and have no documentation and other files cannot be opened," says UDEF. It also regrets that the emails it provided were from the year 2025, four years after the bailout. "It should be noted that these emails exist or have existed," UDEF points out. "It is clear that a flow of communication took place," it adds at another point.

Plus Ultra is the company at the epicenter of the investigation against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the public bailout of 53 million euros that he allegedly received thanks to the influence of the former Spanish president. However, the airline is not the only client of Julio Martínez Martínez's corporate network, supposedly directed by the former socialist leader from the shadows. Both the UDEF in its police reports and the National High Court judge José Luis Calama in his indictment order speak of a consolidated organization that sought to profit thanks to Zapatero's "direct intervention" in "high-value international operations." The commission allegedly received from the Venezuelan directors of Plus Ultra would be just one of the plot's income streams.

The indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is not just the indictment of a former Spanish president (which is significant in itself). It is also the indictment of Pedro Sánchez's closest confidant after his inner circle has fallen: José Luis Ábalos, in preventive detention, and Santos Cerdán. Zapatero is the last pillar of the PSOE leader to be called into question by an alleged corruption scheme.

The judge José Luis Calama has charged José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero because he believes he was the "decisional and strategic core" of a "network" that exerted influence. "His leadership is not manifested in a formal or public manner, but through his capacity for direction, coordination, and supervision, avoiding direct execution of the most sensitive tasks as much as possible," says the ruling to which ARA has had access. It emphasizes that this role "is deduced" from "multiple pieces of evidence" and places special emphasis on some of the conversations reflected in the summary (in which Zapatero does not directly participate).

It is not easy to find a photo of him, nor on Google, but his discretion contrasts with the magnitude of the major cases he usually handles. José Luis Calama Teixeira, the judge who has indicted former president Zapatero for the Plus Ultra case, has been part of the Spanish judicial career for three decades and since 2018 has served as a magistrate of the National High Court, where he has stood out for the investigation of espionage against various members of the Spanish government with Pegasus.

4,311 days after Jordi Pujol's confession, the trial against his family has been postponed for sentencing. In between, there has been an arduous judicial investigation that lasted six years, an eight-month stay in prison for the eldest son of the former President of the Generalitat, and a sum of 80,000 pages. On November 24, 2025, the National Court kicked off the trial: 38 sessions, 200 witnesses, 17 defendants defended by the elite of Catalan criminal law, and two accusations. Three judges and one question to answer: was the fortune the Pujol family had in Andorra an inheritance or was it the fruit of corruption? These have been the best moments at the National Court.

After six months and 38 sessions, the National Court puts an end to the Pujol case trial. It is time for the lawyers of the last seven businessmen to defend their conclusions and request their acquittal. One of those who has intervened is Carles Monguilod, lawyer for Gustavo Buesa. "During the investigation, at times I had a slight feeling that there was anA por ellos. Due to the actions of a certain police force, it seemed that the predicate offense [of money laundering] was being part of the Pujol family or being Catalan", he said. "I know that is not the case, I know that this court will not allow it and will conclude with an acquittal sentence", he concluded. He also took the opportunity to refute the slogan the prosecutor mentioned: "I have publicly confronted it. Spain has never stolen and this is an offense to Spaniards and cannot be tolerated". The Prosecutor's Office requests five years in prison for eight businessmen for the crimes of money laundering and document forgery.

For more than two hours, Cristóbal Martell has tried to dismantle the Prosecutor's accusation against Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, who faces 29 years in prison. The family's lawyer began vehemently to highlight the lack of evidence to support the "grandiose assertion" that the former president of the Generalitat wove a "clientelism network" to profit from illegal commissions in exchange for public works: "When an accusation begins with such a bombastic and ambitious frontispiece, one expects columns that solidly support that gross assertion. Nothing," he proclaimed. "Does this satisfy a filing by the public prosecutor's office and bring it to a court in a democratic state?" he asked ironically at one point during his speech. "It does not seem reasonable to bring this to a court of justice in a state of law with guarantees," he added at another point.

After almost six months, the trial in the Pujol case is reaching –now for real– the final stretch, and if the court's optimistic forecasts are met, it will be ready for sentencing on Thursday. On Monday, the testimonies of the accused concluded, with the four businessmen who were left pending ten days ago. At half past eight in the morning, the lawyers were having a relaxed football chat while waiting to be allowed in. And, behind the scenes, journalists and lawyers were taking advantage of the breaks to make predictions about the prosecutor's verdict. Finally, Fernando Bermejo has opted to maintain the prison sentence requests that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office initially requested: 29 years for Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, 17 years for Mercè Gironès –his ex-wife–, 14 years for Josep Pujol, 8 years for his brothers, and 5 years for the nine businessmen. "If there has been no common sense until now, why will there be now?", one of the lawyers wondered a while earlier. And another advised excluding the businessmen who have nothing to do with public works: "Between private individuals, it is much more difficult to maintain the accusation, and the Supreme Court's filter is not easy to overcome", he warned, already thinking about a possible appeal. But the prosecutor has taken the middle road.

The “progressive” judge –or at least proposed by Podem– José Ricardo de Prada summoned President Jordi Pujol to the National Court in Madrid first thing Monday morning. More than making him testify, the intention was to subject him to another forensic examination to exhibit him as a wounded trophy, if not defeated. And this, to then be able to treat him as disabled and remove him from the case and keep open forever the suspicion of hypothetical guilt, something he himself wanted to defend himself against until the end. Perhaps therein lay the risk!

The inheritance from grandfather Florenci has focused the second part of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's statement at the National Court, which ended up lasting more than six hours. In a session monopolized by the prosecutor's questions, the eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat explained how he managed to multiply grandfather Florenci's inheritance: the original 140 million pesetas (0.8 million euros) turned into six million euros thanks —he repeated fifteen times— to "financial sheets", a concept he already used in 2015 when he testified in the Barcelona courts. However, eleven years ago, in the Parliament of Catalonia, the CEO of Andbank in Spain, Rafael Gascó, replied that he did not know what they were: "It is the first time I have heard the name of this instrument in 35 years of banking experience," he said. The eldest son of the former president of the Generalitat has pointed out that in twenty years he made between 20,000 and 25,000 movements.

The last time there was similar expectation in San Fernando de Henares was on November 24 last year. A crowd of journalists waited from early morning in freezing cold for the arrival of the Pujol family. It was the day that what has been dubbed the trial of the decade began, although after that day the media spotlight has not been the same. In Madrid, comments in talk shows have been minimal in recent months, and the trial has not made headlines on any other day than the first. Until this Monday, April 27, when there were more or less the same journalists again, this time suffering from the heat and with maximum expectation due to the widely misunderstood decision of the tribunal president, Ricardo de Prada, to make Jordi Pujol appear in person in the Spanish capital. "He has discovered the Mediterranean Sea," quipped a lawyer, when they decided to exclude the former president from the case due to incapacity.