The National Court Prosecutor's Office considers it proven that the former Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, directly participated in the "criminal parapolice operation" known as the Kitchen case and had "control" over the driver of the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, who acted as an informant. Prosecutor César de Rivas concluded this Tuesday before the court that this illegal operation was not intended to recover Bárcenas's hidden money, but to "boycott" the judicial investigation of the Gürtel case and seize "compromising" documentation from him for the party leadership.

In recent days, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has deployed his defense strategy on multiple fronts: four written statements in four days. The latest step taken by the former Spanish president has been to lash out very harshly at the UDEF, whom he holds responsible for his diaries and conversations with his secretary having ended up leaked to the media.having ended up leaked to the media. He denounces it as an “authentic outrage”, an “indiscriminate dissemination” with a “devastating result” and “the most serious attack that can be made” against the rights to honor, privacy, self-image, and secrecy of communications. This latest request, which ARA has accessed, is added to the other moves he has recently made to try to invalidate the chats that incriminate him. They are all conversations between third parties who speak about him and which were the basis of his indictment. So far, his roadmap focuses on attacking the origin and legitimacy of the evidence.

There is a comparison between two fashionable judges who are currently making a name for themselves: José Luis Calama, who is investigating José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the National Court, and Juan Carlos Peinado, who has sent Begoña Gómez to trial after a two-year investigation. It is obvious to everyone that the way these two major media cases in which they are involved are being handled is different. Indeed, high-ranking voices from Moncloa in the corridors of Congress admit that Calama "is not" Peinado, as shown by the fact that the investigation into the former Spanish president, still in its early stages, does not have the extravagances of the indictment of Pedro Sánchez's wife. The clear distance between the two has become evident, especially in two matters: the adoption of precautionary measures and the indictment of individuals who have previously testified under oath to tell the truth. Let's go step by step.

The Unit of Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) of the Spanish police has opened a new front for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A report accessed by ARA reveals that the former Spanish president allegedly received 200,000 euros from a Peruvian company –Grupo Gloria– in exchange for "mediating or influencing" "various millionaire lawsuits" that the company had in Bolivia. He allegedly charged them through a "simulated contract" with an intermediary company –Focus Social– through three invoices: one for 100,000 euros in 2024 and two for 50,000 euros in 2025. For this purpose, he "allegedly met or contacted" "high political spheres" of Bolivia, such as President Luis Arce, the ministers of Economy and Justice, and the state attorney general. At the center of the target was a sanction of 107 million dollars that the company's cement subsidiary –Soboce– had received.

Leire Díez has been under the scrutiny of the National High Court for days for allegedly orchestrating – and with the hand of Santos Cerdán – an structure to derail the judicial cases of Pedro Sánchez's circle. The investigation will take another step from next week with the declaration of lawyer Jacobo Teijelo as investigated and a battery of 24 witnesses who will begin to parade before Santiago Pedraz. According to the judge, what the so-called plumber of the PSOE did was to offer "remunerations or favors" in exchange for information or actions that would help to torpedo investigations uncomfortable for the socialists. Some of her interlocutors believed that what she was telling them was "fantastical," a "waste of time," or an "intrigue," even though Leire Díez boasted of having the capacity to maneuver in high instances to achieve her goals. Where did the tentacles she claimed to have reach?

The day after José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero declared himself investigated, Judge José Luis Calama makes a move and takes a further step: he indicts his two daughters –Alba Rodríguez and Laura Rodríguez– and his secretary –Gertrudis Alcázar–. The magistrate did so after the PP requested it, as leader of the popular prosecutions, pointing to the crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling and money laundering. It was an initial request from Hazte Oír that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office subsequently endorsed. Why are they being investigated?

Wednesday morning was a very stressful day for the media in general and for Espejo público in particular. The control session in the Congress of Deputies coincided with the declaration of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the National Court. By the start of Susanna Griso's program, at nine in the morning, the former president, who was under investigation, had already arrived at the building. They already had the image of the day: Zapatero getting out of the car and climbing the stairs that led him inside the courts.Public Mirror had three different viewpoints of that moment. The first, a general shot, further away, in which Zapatero was seen in profile getting out of the car. The second, tighter, in which he appeared from the back getting out of the vehicle. And the third, very similar, which captured the moment he turned to wave and went up the stairs. The program joined these three scenes to slightly extend the sequence. It was a triple entry to the National Court. Since Zapatero's declaration was simultaneous with the control session, the program split the screen into several parts. But Zapatero's car arriving was an obsession, to the point that they kept the images on loop for practically the entire program: entering the National Court over and over again. Large, small, on one side, in the center, in the bottom corner, or at the top. They varied it depending on the space they had, the connections with the reporters, and the topics they were developing. But the former president was always there, somewhere or another. Between nine in the morning and beyond one in the afternoon, we saw Zapatero enter the National Court up to 286 times (perhaps with a small margin of error which you will allow me, after spending four hours watching the television loop like someone watching a washing machine drum in motion). More than seventy times per hour. From the side, from the back, or waving. Depending on the time, they also added a few images of the confiscated jewels in between, merging the scene of the car arriving with the loot from the safe. Around eleven in the morning, they offered a touch of creativity: they repeated the images again, adding a caption that supposedly reproduced the insults hurled at him by some pedestrians. Up to eighteen times they replayed the images with the addition of “¡SINVERGÜENZA!” and “¡CHORIZO!” in huge yellow letters. From one in the afternoon, Zapatero left the courts through the guest entrance, which caught most of the media off guard. But they managed a fleeting scene of the socialist leaving, which they replayed in slow motion up to 28 times. “¡Nos han jugado al despiste!”, lamented Griso, and the panelist Toni Cantó commented that the building's column had played in his favor because it partially blocked him. The pleasure of the television verdict. Then they reiterated in two boxes the arrival and departure sequences simultaneously. Zapatero twice at the National Court. The satisfaction of a job well done.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero reiterates his innocence and denies before the judge José Luis Calama that he influenced in any way the rescue of Plus Ultra, the loan of 53 million euros that the airline company received from the Spanish government in March 2021. According to what ARA has been able to learn, this is what he said during his declaration at the National Court this Wednesday, which began shortly after nine in the morning and has made him the first former president of the Spanish government since the restoration of democracy to declare as an accused in a judicial investigation. He is accused of influence peddling, money laundering, tax offense, and smuggling. Zapatero said that he "never" had direct contact with Plus Ultra and denied asking any authority or official to facilitate the rescue. He specified that the only person he has dealt with is Julio Martínez Sola, the president of the airline, whom he did not know until 2024. However, his explanations have not convinced Judge Calama, who believes that Zapatero "has not managed to dispel" the indications of criminality against him and that they "derive from various and different sources of evidence".

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).