PM Sanchez Refuses To Testify As Part Of Wife's Corruption Investigation

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has invoked his constitutional right not to testify as a witness as part of an investigation into alleged corruption linked to his wife, Begona Gomez.

• Judge Juan Carlos Peinado arrived at the Moncloa Palace, the PM's official residence in Madrid, earlier today to question Sanchez under oath in a session that the judge wanted to be on film. Sanchez declined to testify in person or on camera.
• Peinado had denied Sanchez's request to testify in writing. The PM argued that gov't members have the right to do so when testifying about matters know by dint of them being in office.
• However, Peinado argued that he was not seeking information Sanchez knows through his office, but through his marriage. Sanchez invoked an article under Spains' Criminal Procedure Law that say spouses or close relatives "are exempt from the obligation to testify" against the accused.
• The defence and public prosecutors argue the case is politically motivated having been launched by the far-right Vox party and the ultra-conservative Catholic CitizenGO advocacy group.
• El Paison the probe into Gomez: "The specifics of the investigation remain unclear. However, from the judge's rulings, it appears that the investigation concerns Gómez's relationship with businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés; her connection with Javier Hidalgo, former CEO of Globalia, the group that owns Air Europa—an airline rescued by the Council of Ministers in 2020; and the ties between the president's wife and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), where she co-directed a chair."